Brighter Paths
by ArbitraryRenaissance
Summary: Darkstalker believes that Clearsight deserves the future that she wants, just as much as he deserves the future that he wants. That's why he decides to gift her an animus-touched object that gives her the power to change the past. Where will the future take her if she got the opportunity to redo things? Can she find the brightest path? Or is she doomed to a fate of darkness?
1. Prologue

**o**

**NOCTURNE**

"It's complete rubbish."

"It is _not_. Our powers have have to come from _somewhere_. What, you think it's just an inexplicable ability that we gained from being hatched under the magical moonrays?"

"No, but I think what's going on isn't analogous to 'time snakes interweaving themselves' or whatever it is you're trying to say."

Timeleaper let out a half sigh, half growl. He cast a snide scowl to Serenity, the dragon he'd been arguing with, and circled to the other side of the chalkboard. The poor dragon had been trying to explain himself to the three other dragons for the past half hour now, and if the futures were any indication, he'd end up leaving this meeting thoroughly disappointed.

Nocturne lowered her head to the floor, starting to feel the slightest twinge of impatience grow inside of her. Why couldn't she have grown up in the middle of a war? Her powers could have been _useful_, then. She could have led armies, won battles, protected villages. But instead, her powers were completely wasted in virtue of fact that the future was pretty much guaranteed to be boring and peaceful and simple no matter what she did. The most exciting thing she foresaw happening in her lifetime was the RainWings inventing a rich, brown, butter-like substance made from the cocoa bean.

_Good times create weak dragons_, she mused pessimistically. All the Queen's seers, bereft of anything productive that they could do, were tasked by Queen Nebula herself with "progressing our understanding of the art of clairvoyance." Or, as Nocturne liked to put it, "becoming insufferable pseudo-intellectuals." They spent their entire postmidnights in a lecture hall filled with potted trees and chalkboards, contemplating questions surrounding the philosophy of the future: What exactly do seer powers mean? Where do they come from? How fated are the prophecies, and what meaning do they actually have if they're not destined to come true? It was all nebulous pedantry, hidden under the guise of productivity because the conversations were being had by scholars.

But as much as Nocturne hated to admit it, she was one of them. She woke up every evening with the begrudging acceptance that while she found nothing in these conversations that would actually prove to be useful in the long run, she did at least find them entertaining.

Timeleaper was illustrating his fourth-dimension theory. He believed that time was a dimension, just like the three dimensions of space, and that seers had their power primarily because the path of their future bent through "spacetime" and "intersected itself." The points of intersection were points in the seer's life where they caught glimpses of the future. That was why he had drawn his interweaving time snakes on the chalkboard. They represented dragon lives. Lives, according to him, traced a path, with each point on the path being a point in their life: the points near the beginning of the path represented their life as a dragonet, and the points near the end of the path represented their life as an old dragon. For most dragons, this path was straight and smooth, like a line. Seer dragons, however, were a big jumbled knot. Many of the threads bent and twisted, causing the path to cross itself. When a seer dragon came across an intersection in her path through spacetime, she would see the future that was intersecting her life at the present moment.

It had been clear by the faces of her coworkers that this theory was going right over their heads.

"Nocturne, help me out," Timeleaper requested, taking a seat on one of the cushions and sulking. "You see what I'm trying to say here, don't you?"

"Yeah, I think I do," Nocturne answered. "You're interpreting dragons as four-dimensional: our lives are stretched out along the axis of time."

"Right, exactly!" he answered. "We're time snakes slithering through the universe along the temporal axis. Why can't all you other eggheads understand that?"

"Probably because it doesn't work," Nocturne quickly replied.

"What? Why not?" Timeleaper suddenly grew concernedly interested. That might have been one of the reasons Nocturne both enjoyed and despised these silly conversations: the other seers had a great amount of respect for her. They _listened_ to her. They knew that she was smarter than them, and a better seer than them, and that if she had an objection to something they said then it was going to be a good objection worth considering. It made her feel appreciated. But it also reminded her that she was surrounded by lesser minds.

"First," she began, "even if we grant that time is another dimension, it's still a matter of fact that it's only _one_ dimension. There are some mathematicians at this university who study knots. As it turns out, they've found that one-dimensional knots like the ones you show here don't actually exist. Which makes sense if you think about it: don't you need all three spatial dimensions to tie a string?"

Timeleaper glanced back at his drawing and pondered for a second. "Okay, so maybe it's not a perfect metaphor, but still —"

"Second," Nocturne went on, "all of us are currently existing at the same time. But this theory of yours suggests that each of our times are distinct from one another. It's almost as if we live in different realities, each one moving and weaving on its own."

"Well, that's — uh …." Timeleaper froze for a second, his mouth clamped shut in thought. Then, he sputtered, "You see, there's time, and then there's _time._"

"Third," Nocturne said, completely disinterested in whatever justification he had to give to keep his hypothesis afloat, "and this is the most problematic of my objections: your theory suggests that there's only _one_ future: the one traced out ahead of us, exactly as you drew it."

"Wait, what's the problem with that?" Timeleaper asked, this time much more confidently. "There only _is_ one future."

Nocturne was flabbergasted into a thoughtful stillness. She never thought that the notion that there were multiple futures was something that she would ever have to explain. Remarkably enough, the two other NightWings with them — Serenity and Deepseeker — gave her perplexed looks as well, as if _she_ were the one who had said something unusual.

"Oh, come on," Nocturne said, her frills along her spine standing straight. "We seers should be more aware of this fact than anyone."

"I am," Serenity said hesitantly in that small voice that acutely matched her size. "As a seer, I feel quite aware of the _fact_ that there's only one future."

"Our visions show us a world that is _destined_ to happen," Deepseeker argued, his voice frail and deep and elderly. "Is this not proof enough of a fixed future? The only thing that seems to have the potential to change it is our awareness of it."

"Poppycock," Nocturne quickly said, her nose upturned. "Perhaps your lesser powers blind you from the truth more than they help lead you to it. I'll have you know with certainty that there _are_ multiple futures. I've _seen_ them. I can see them now."

"And do tell, Nocturne, what you make of those futures that never happened." Deepseeker shifted in his cushion. He was a large, old dragon: laying on his pillow, he looked as if he might have been hiding a small hoard of ancient gold beneath him. He was wise in his old age, and one of the only dragons that found poignant moments where he could gracefully dismantle Nocturne's occasional misguided argument. He went on, saying, "If your powers pointed you to a future that never saw the light of day or the dark of night, was that not a _false_ future? Was it not a future that never happened?"

"Of course it was a future that never happened," Nocturne answered, impatience beginning to ebb into her tone. "But that doesn't mean it was a future that couldn't have happened."

"Yes, you're right," Deepseeker said. "That future could have happened. But it didn't. I could tell you a million false stories about The Scorching, all of which _could_ have happened, but that doesn't make those false stories any more meaningful. And it certainly doesn't mean that there are multiple pasts."

Nocturne's eye twitched. "The future hasn't happened yet," she said. "That's something the past doesn't have going for it. The past is fixed: I can't control it. But the future is dynamic: I _can_ control it_._ I can choose to leave this discussion early, for example, and fly off to the library. Or, I can stay here and continue arguing with you. Right now, the library choice is winning."

Deepseeker chuckled a bit. "It surprises me that a seer as strong as you still adheres to such a folly," he said. "Yes, in some sense, the choice is yours. But the choice you make is inevitable. If you choose to stay, then you must have chosen to stay. If you choose to leave, then you must have chosen to leave. The choice you will make is just as true now as it will be in the future, after you've made it. This is what makes clairvoyance possible: if the choices that our fellow dragons make aren't fated to happen, then the visions we have of their choices would have no grounded meaning in reality."

If Nocturne's choice wasn't fated from the beginning, it was fated now. She rose to her feet and exited the lecture hall without another word. The others stayed silent until she was out of ear's reach.

The topic stuck to her mind like a bloodthirsty leech as she flew away. She felt like it took her entire body to disagree with the other seers as strongly as she did. Were they just misguided? That had to have been it. It wasn't that they were complete idiots; it was that they were weak seers. Their minds didn't have the same level of omniscience towards the future that hers did. They only saw glimpses of certain threads when their powers blessed them with access to it. They couldn't compare two diverging paths the way she could. They couldn't see how unstable some of the futures were due to the slightest variations. They didn't realize just how many futures there were — how many choices weren't yet predetermined.

Granted, there was a hint of truth that even she had to admit existed in Deepseeker's words. Not in any direct sense, but in an indirect, tangible, meaningful way. When she looked far enough ahead, some futures actually _were_ pretty close to fated. This was something that baffled her. If none of the choices of dragons were predetermined, then pretty much every path would have millions of branches. But some threads hardly ever branched. And some threads were completely cut clean from the equation of the future.

Like how there would never be a war with the SandWings in her lifetime. Queen Nebula would never provoke the SandWings into war, nor would she declare it herself. Ever. She explored the futures extensively in the secret, sadistic hope of finding a war that she could herd the Kingdom towards if she ended up getting too bored, but no such future existed.

But there was another curious thing that seemed fated to happen. It was an anomalous point of stability in the far, far future, as if the moons and their associated spirits aligned in just the right way to spark an irrevocable destiny and bestow it to the world.

She was thinking, of course, about the hatching of the next great seer.

It wouldn't happen for another 306 years. But it would happen, more or less, in 306 years, shortly after the brightest night, when all three moons were full.

The name wasn't fixed. It changed from thread to thread. In some futures it was Clearsight. In others it was Fatewatcher. In others it was Eon. But Nocturne liked the name 'Clearsight' the most out of all the ones she'd seen, so that was what she tended to call the dragon in her mind. She wouldn't have minded if her own parents had come up with that name on their own.

But Clearsight's name was the only thing Nocturne liked about her. It was the only thing about her that didn't send flares of jealousy through her heart. Clearsight was destined to fall in love with a brilliant, powerful dragon with thrice-moonborn powers; and he was destined to fall in love with her. Clearsight was destined to stop _at least a couple_ of Very Bad Things from happening. Maybe even a genocide. Maybe even _two_.

Clearsight was destined to live an interesting life. She was destined to be _remembered_.

Unlike Nocturne.

It was disappointing. The overwhelming swell of boring NightWing diplomacy would last another three hundred years, until an incredible conflict would come along. Sometimes it was between the NightWings and SeaWings, other times it was between the NightWings and IceWings, and other times it was a continent-wide war between every tribe, sparked by an angry Queen who was just as bored as Nocturne was with the state of the world and wanted to set it on fire for a bit. No matter what the conflict was, Clearsight — or whoever this special seer ended up being — would have something to say about it. And Nocturne wouldn't …

… or would she?

A little part of her mind nagged the words _'Not so fast'_ to her. It was an optimistic, eager part of her mind that she never knew existed in virtue of her never having to listen to it. _Could_ she make a difference, even if she tried? Maybe she could. After all, with the future being as dull as it was, it might just be possible that if she did the right thing, it could carry through all those hundreds of years and touch the dragons of the future.

That was a nice thought, one she was surprised she hadn't had sooner. Maybe the living dragons around her would die without any tremendous appreciation of her talents, but she just might be able to make a difference for the endangered dragons so many years in the future.

She liked the idea enough to entertain it further. Maybe she could speak to Clearsight, even if their conversation ended up being one-sided. Maybe she could give Clearsight advice, or have an impact on her that would through proxy help her change the world. She explored the far futures for any potential differences she could make. As she touched down at the foot of the library entrance, her head remained in her mind, unraveling the threads that she had yet to explore. If there _was_ a difference in the tangled mess of futures during that time, it was hard to see. Maybe she had to do something clever — something that was much more likely to last three hundred years. Maybe her powers just weren't strong enough to see that far ahead at a sufficiently fine resolution.

Or maybe she just needed to study the timelines more carefully.

She stepped inside and reserved a study room for herself. She had some notes to take. This was going to be a fun new hobby of hers, she could tell. She was a seer, after all.

* * *

**A/N:** Once upon a time, I found author's notes hokey and silly, but I've since had a change of heart. Fanfiction is dynamic, and a lot of the fun in writing and reading it comes from the fact that it's more personal. It's not just one person making a whole book before sending it off to an editor and a publisher. It's an artist making something one chapter at a time and getting feedback from readers, one chapter at a time. The interaction I have with you guys is much more connected, and including these author's notes helps make the interpersonal nature of fanfiction even stronger.

This is the first installment of a story I've had on my mind for nearly a year now. This story is all about those other futures — the ones that Clearsight sought after but failed to reach. What were they like? How could she have reached them while avoiding the even _worse_ futures that she saw? I'm going to have a lot of fun offering my own answers, and I hope you have fun reading them as they come out.

Since all of the prologues of the second arc of Wings of Fire took place in the past, I figured I'd follow the pattern and write from the perspective of a seer dragon who was from three hundred years before Clearsight's time. This story will ultimately be about Darkstalker and Clearsight, but you'll soon see the small ways in which Nocturne ends up fulfilling her goal in having an influence over their lives.

Please let me know what you think!


	2. Chapter 1

**o**

**DARKSTALKER**

It was a gorgeous night. All three moons were out: one a fat crescent hugging against the horizon, one a thin gibbous up against the crown of the sky, and one — the smallest but brightest — cheery and full on the other side of the sky.

The tides were high and angry. Waves crashed into the craggy oceanfront, flooding the tide pools and sending white bursts of mist into the air, shimmering in the moonlight like swarms of silver fireflies. The little sea creatures were all sheltered in the crannies and caves, hiding from the onslaught. Darkstalker and Clearsight had taken shelter as well. It was in the same quiet grotto where they'd found that traumatized SeaWing the other week. The calls and replies of the waves echoed against the walls, but the air was still and cool inside.

Darkstalker stretched his wings and unstrapped the leather scroll holder attached to his shoulder. He lay down on a smooth bed of stone further into the cavity and looked up at Clearsight, who approached with delightful interest. She curled up right next to Darkstalker and tucked herself under his wing. "Did you come up with any new spells today?" she asked.

"A few," he answered. As he pulled out his enchanted scroll, Clearsight rested her head on his forearm and kept her curious eyes on the unfurling parchment. Darkstalker leaned a little closer to her, his heart swelling.

It was the smallest things sometimes that helped him realize how much he already loved Clearsight. It was the way her snout would dip down into her chest when she smiled. It was the way her eyes suddenly lit up with curiosity whenever Darkstalker surprised her with something her visions failed to catch. It was the way she folded her wings in just the right way when she snuggled up against him, making him feel like an important piece of him had just fit into the perfect place.

He wondered sometimes if she felt the same way. Were there tiny things that he didn't even realize that he was doing that helped him win her heart? Darkstalker knew that he had to try especially hard for her. For all he knew, Clearsight had already lived a dozen lifetimes with him in her head. If she wasn't going to get bored of him, he'd have to give her fresh, exciting memories that she hadn't yet lived. But maybe he was already doing that automatically. Maybe he was already giving her those fresh new memories with the small things he did, like showing her _his_ smile, and holding her snugly with _his_ wing.

"Awww," Clearsight crooned. She pointed at one of the enchantments and looked at him as if he'd just given her a bouquet of flowers.

Darkstalker read the words above her talon. _'Enchant this plate to always keep Foeslayer's dinner warm.'_ "Oh, that," he said with a shrug. "Dinner times aren't always very pleasant with my parents. I figured I ought to make things just a little bit more bearable for my mom. She gets unhappy sometimes when my dad brings home eagles that are freezing cold."

"You're such a sweetheart," she said, almost teasingly.

Darkstalker let out a small, bright smile. "Well, it's easy to do good when you're able to do the sorts of things that I can."

A momentary look of doubtfulness cast its way over Clearsight's features, but they were gone in an instant. She looked back at the scroll and read the next enchantment. " 'Enchant this candle to light up whenever I need light, and to snuff itself out whenever I need darkness.' "

"A stupid enchantment," Darkstalker said offhandedly. "I don't use candles very often anyway. I can see just fine with natural lighting. I was thinking about repurposing it."

"It doesn't get too dark in your room?"

"Not really. My desk is right up against my window."

"Oh, right," Clearsight said, looking down.

Darkstalker remembered that Clearsight lived further down in the ravines, where the sky was less prominent and the moons were blocked from sight by the high cliff sides. It was less desirable housing, where the less wealthy NightWings lived. Clearsight never complained about it, but she let Darkstalker know that she looked forward to the possible future where she got a good job working for Queen Vigilance and helping her family move somewhere higher up.

"Would you like to have it?" Darkstalker asked. "I know that you like to stay up late studying."

"Sure," Clearsight said. "I mean, I probably won't get much use out of it either. It's not like lighting candles is all that hard." She looked down, and read the last enchantment on the scroll.

Her snout twitched, and then she held her breath. Darkstalker blinked, confused at her reaction. He leaned forward and read the enchantment himself. _'Enchant this earring so that when I wear it, it will keep me focused and make me ignore distracting thoughts.'_ There wasn't anything wrong with that, was there? He just made it so that he could pay attention in class.

"Is something wrong?" Darkstalker asked. "I thought that was a pretty clever enchantment. I should be able to get all A's with it."

Clearsight opened her mouth, but no words came out. Now that Darkstalker looked more closely at her, he noticed that something was off. Her eyes weren't focused on the scroll anymore. Instead, they were staring out beyond it. Her purple irises began to grow pale and milky. Her breathing returned, but her inhales were short and panicked.

_She's having another vision attack!_ he realized. Immediately he rolled up the scroll and slid it back into its case. He repositioned himself so that he was facing her, put his hands to her chin, and gently touched her snout with his. "Clearsight," he said softly. "It's not real. None of it's real."

There was no response. Darkstalker had come to expect that. It seemed that when she got these attacks, there was no cutting them short. They blasted through her mind, and there wasn't anything she, or anyone else, could do to stop them.

Still, Darkstalker felt like he had to try. Maybe he couldn't stop the attack, but he could hopefully at least make things a little more comfortable for her_._ "Come back to me," he whispered. "Come back to me. Come back to me."

He hated seeing her like this. It was one of the few things that genuinely scared him. Her eyes weren't settling. They were getting worse, sporadically twitching and contracting, ever so faintly beginning to glow. It was making Darkstalker dizzy. Her ears pressed back defensively, and she shuffled into the corner of the cove, trembling like a traumatized puppy.

It ended up being a long attack — the longest one he'd seen her have to deal with so far. For three minutes she'd been cringing, her wings shielding the roof of her head. Darkstalker felt terrible. Her power was supposed to be a gift — a gift for both of them. It was supposed to be reassuring, a guiding light to warn them of potential dangers. It wasn't supposed to be this traumatizing to her. It wasn't supposed to be this frightening to him.

These attacks were getting more frequent too. She'd had a spell of visions yesterday. And the night before that — when he showed Clearsight his scroll for the first time.

At last, the glow faded. Purple irises gazed back at him, quickly filling up with tears. Clearsight threw her arms around him and sobbed into his shoulder. "They're getting worse," she said, her talons curling into the scales on Darkstalker's back. "Why are they getting worse?"

Darkstalker wish he knew. He thought that the future would be brighter now than it had ever been before. He'd made that scroll in order to protect his soul. At the time, it seemed like Clearsight had truly believed that the futures were better because of his sacrifice. The way her eyes lit up like diamonds before she'd tackled him in an affectionate hug after looking ahead … he was sure that he'd done the right thing.

But then Arctic stepped into his room, and Clearsight got her future attack, and at that moment everything changed, almost in an instant. Maybe it was his father's fault. Maybe if he'd been able to keep his animus secret hidden for longer, he could have secured a tighter grip on the futures that Clearsight wanted.

He'd have to find a way to get back at him for that.

"Maybe you're just worrying too much," Darkstalker said. "I keep telling you that the futures are too hard to control. You need to have a bit of faith: let the present take us where it will."

"And sit back as everything gets worse and worse?" Clearsight let go of Darkstalker and shook her head. "I can still see all those wonderful futures, Darkstalker, but that doesn't mean I don't have to fight for them. If I don't do anything … the things you could end up doing …."

"Clearsight, I need you to trust me." Darkstalker pressed a talon to her chin so that she was looking at his eyes. "Be honest," he said, a smile donning his face. "What part of me right now is not downright amazing?"

To his joy, Clearsight let out a tiny chuckle. "Well, your humility has gone unchecked for a bit too long," she answered as she flicked the tears from her eyes. "But it's not the you right now that I'm worried about. It's the you that might exist in another three years, who's too power-hungry and angry to be reasoned with."

"Haven't I already shown you that I'm protecting my soul? How could I possibly become someone so terrible?" Darkstalker emphasized his point with an affectionate nuzzle on her cheek.

"I don't know," Clearsight said. Her wings drooped, and she surrendered her gaze to the floor. "I honestly don't, Darkstalker. I just know that you _can_."

Darkstalker looked down at his own talons, feeling trapped in his own body. He hated it when Clearsight talked about him like this — like there was an evil demon trapped in his soul, waiting to claw its way out. Sometimes it seemed like Clearsight honestly believed that she knew him better than he knew himself.

"I need to go," Clearsight said, making her way to the grotto's exit.

Darkstalker's heart gripped itself. He didn't want to be alone for the rest of the night, not yet. "Can't you stay a little longer?" he pressed, circling around and blocking her way.

Clearsight stopped and shook her head. "My parents are going to start worrying if I'm not back soon."

"Oh, come on, you don't know that," Darkstalker said, before remembering that she actually did.

She gave him a knowing smirk. She walked around him and looked up at the sky. "I'll see you tomorrow," she said before taking off.

Darkstalker stepped outside and watched Clearsight as the stars swallowed her silhouette, frustrated as ever. How could she leave him alone on _that_ note? Now he'd have to slink back home to his insufferable father with the guilt of terrible hypothetical futures looming over his shoulders. And those futures weren't even going to happen.

Ever since he'd shown her his scroll, she'd gotten better at not badgering him about using his powers recklessly. In fact, she never did it. She was supportive of his enchantments, and she seemed much more confident that his soul was safe. But she was still afraid. That unwavering trust that he so desperately wanted from her was still so out of reach. He worried that he'd never be able to win it.

Last year, before he'd met Clearsight, he found a scroll in the library about seers. Most scrolls about this topic he wouldn't give a second glance, since they catered to those who had weaker future sight abilities than even he had. But the one that he'd found was different. It written by one of the strongest seers the NightWings had ever known: a scholar from three hundred years ago named Nocturne. Her insignificance in the grand scheme of things had left her name forgotten by most dragons, but when he got his talons on one of her treatises on seer behavior, it felt like the scroll had been written exclusively for him.

He was almost convinced that it _was_. Some sections of it were eerily direct in how they applied to him. There was one part in it that read, _"One of the most powerful and harmonious friendships I could imagine between two dragons is that between an IceWing animus and a NightWing clairvoyant. The animus has the power to do incredible things, and the clairvoyant has the power to discover which of those things is the most incredible. The animus is a navigator while the seer is a map. Without the navigator, the map has nobody to offer guidance to. But without the map, the navigator must explore a dangerous jungle on their own._

"_In the extremely unlikely event that you are an animus, then congratulations on having such a wonderful power! Just remember that friendships and romances with seers don't come cheaply. You're going to need to fight extra hard to earn their trust. We seers can see the mistakes you're likely to make ahead of time, so you're not going to be able to hide your fallibility from us. We're also going to see the _consequences_ of those mistakes. Given that you're an animus, those consequences could be pretty frightening."_

Of course her trust would be hard to earn. He had to compete with all of the terrifying futures that she saw. He had to compete with the fact that she really believed that all of those futures were possible. Darkstalker could see how frightening that was, knowing that if she made one mistake in the present, then a whole array of opportunities would vanish completely. There weren't any do-overs. There weren't multiple pasts like there were multiple futures. Clearsight might have been able to see what lay ahead better than anyone, but she couldn't rewind time …

… or could she?

An idea began to sprout deep in his mind. A good idea. One that might have been even better than his enchanted scroll. Without a moment's hesitation, he took to the sky and returned home, his thoughts rumbling with excitement.

Clearsight was in for a very pleasant surprise. She may not have had the power to change the past, but she did have a boyfriend who could fix that.

* * *

**A/N:** Did you notice how this chapter ended the same way as the prologue? Both Nocturne and Darkstalker realized that there was something that they could do to influence this time frame.

I hope you enjoyed seeing Darkstalker at a time when he was sane and suave. There'll be some more fluffy lovey dovey stuff in the next chapter, so I'll get to have a little bit more fun with him for the time being.

Thank you for the reviews, and please keep 'em coming!


	3. Chapter 2

**o**

**CLEARSIGHT**

Darkstalker had been silent for the majority of the next day. His head was burrowed deep within his own thoughts, as if he'd been vexed by a challenging math problem that he desperately wanted to understand. When she talked to him, his responses were short and bereft of any matter, and often came with a delay. Clearsight knew this attitude: it was the one he wore when he was plotting something. She was respectful enough to avoid using her powers to try and decipher what he was up to, in case it was a surprise meant for her. But she did feel inclined to look ahead, just to make sure that he wasn't up to anything sinister or dangerous.

The future still looked safe. As far as she could tell, whatever Darkstalker was planning on doing, it had no noticeable impact. She'd been foreseeing a pleasant series of forthcoming weeks these past two days. Those weeks were still filled with starry nights, good grades, romance, and amusing gossip with Listener.

Darkstalker made up for his quiet confidentiality the day afterwards, though. Whenever they got the opportunity to meet up between classes, he was talkative and smiling and very interested in her. Clearsight knew this attitude as well: it was the one he wore when he had something to show her. He'd acted the exact same way on the day he showed her his scroll. She figured that it must have been another clever enchantment keeping him this antsy. Maybe he was planning to spoil her with a gift. That had to be it. In most of her classes, she daydreamed, trying to figure out what it was, using all of her self-control to keep herself from using her powers. There were so many possibilities. She'd had a dozen ideas by lunchtime, and more flooded in every hour.

Once classes ended, she tried to distract herself by meeting up with Listener, who was lauding endlessly over the big dragon with dark green scales under his wings that she'd hooked up with the other day. "Isn't he handsome?" she said for the third time. "And athletic too. He's on the track team, did you know that? He hunts down little rabbits and gives them to me as snacks. You should see him: he's so fast!"

Clearsight shrugged, and swallowed a bitter thought that she definitely didn't want Listener to hear. She toned herself down and said, "He doesn't seem that special."

"Oh, give me a break." Listener rolled her eyes. "Why do I even bother talking to you about him? You've got an animus boyfriend: of _course _all the other guys are mediocre compared to him."

"Believe me," Clearsight said to her friend, "I have my reasons not to like him, and Darkstalker isn't one of them."

"You haven't even met him, though!" Listener growled, and her tail thumped to the ground in anger. "Why can't you at least have a _little_ bit of faith? You think you know everything because you're a seer. Well, guess what? Not all of your visions come true. I'm going to prove to you that he's even more perfect than your precious Darkstalker."

She stormed off, fuming. Clearsight felt a little guilty as she let her friend march away. She wanted to give her an apology, but she had to stay principled with her this time. Not all of her visions came true, but this one certainly would. That boyfriend of hers was going to break her heart. Listener would eventually learn that she was wrong and Clearsight was right. She'd be more supportive then.

"Maybe it's good that she doesn't know what'll happen."

Clearsight turned around. Darkstalker was standing behind her with an amused smile on his face. "She has to learn her lesson the hard way, it seems," he said.

"I should probably apologize anyway," she said to him. "I don't want her believing that I think I'm better than everyone because of you."

"You don't need me to be better than everyone," Darkstalker said, brushing his wing up against hers. "Hey, can you get up early tomorrow? I want to talk to you before school starts."

_Tomorrow? I have to wait until tomorrow? _"Why?" Clearsight asked, smiling up at him. "Is your little surprise for me not ready yet?"

"Surprise?" Darkstalker echoed, his eyes shifting from side to side. "Who said anything about a surprise?"

"No one. But I can tell you've been itching to show me something all day."

Darkstalker growled harshly to himself. "I guess I'm not very good at hiding my excitement, am I?"

"Just get it over with and tell me what it is," Clearsight insisted. Her impatience was starting to turn into urgency. She didn't think she'd be able to sleep if she had this on her mind for the rest of the day.

"No, no, it can't be now. Everything has to be just right. Meet me on the beach at sunset. I've already looked ahead: nobody else is going to be there. It will just be the two of us." He flicked his tail and brushed his cheek against hers.

When Clearsight looked back at Darkstalker, she saw a glimmer in his eyes. He was just as eager as she was. There was a childlike joy welling up inside him that he was struggling so hard to contain.

"I know you'll be there," he said conclusively. "I need to go home and make some more preparations. See you in the evening."

He took to the sky and flew off. Clearsight sighed and accepted her fate. She kept her future seeing abilities toned down for the rest of the night and flew back to her own house.

* * *

The daytime came, Clearsight slept, and the daytime went. She'd managed to keep herself busy with homework and talk about classroom matters with her parents. They had been delighted to see that she had something on her mind other than the future for a change. Clearsight had to admit herself that it was a nice change of pace as well. Maybe there was a bit of merit to Listener's philosophy after all: she couldn't remember the last time she'd been this excited for this long.

But once she woke up the next day, she could hardly wait a second longer. She got out of bed, told her parents that she'd be meeting up with Listener to finish up a school project, and shot out of her house without a nibble of breakfast. She flew towards the beach as fast as her wings could take her.

The air was still and the tides were low, and as Darkstalker had predicted, nobody else was there. He was sitting beside a campfire made from driftwood, staring out into the sunset. When he heard Clearsight approaching, he looked back at her and beamed. "You made it."

"Yes, I made it," Clearsight said impatiently, and a little out of breath. She approached Darkstalker with a curious stride in her step. "Now hurry up and show me what it is you did."

When she sat down next to him, he didn't say anything. Instead he just looked at her, happy and innocent as ever, and touched his nose to hers. Clearsight smiled, her snout dipping into her chest. Darkstalker's eyes softened so much that it actually made Clearsight a little embarrassed. "You have the most beautiful smile in the world," he said, just loud enough to combat the sound of the waves. He flicked out his forked tongue and licked her cheek.

Clearsight giggled, and Darkstalker leaned forward, continuing to nuzzle and kiss her. "You're in a pretty romantic mood," she observed.

"I love you," he agreed, resting his head over her shoulder.

That was the first time he'd ever spoken those words out loud. She'd heard him say them a hundred times over in the futures she saw, but now was the first time they'd come from Darkstalker as he truly was. Clearsight felt herself flustering up. "Isn't it a bit too soon to say that?" she asked.

"It was never soon enough," Darkstalker answered, drawing his head back and looking right at her once more. "I've known you for years. I've known that my life is going to be so much better because of you. I've known that all I had to do was wait for you to come into my life, and everything was going to get so much brighter. I've always loved you, Clearsight. I always will."

There was a happy flutter in Clearsight's heart. She never realized how good it would feel, knowing that she meant so much to someone — knowing that she made Darkstalker's world one that he could look forward to.

"I love you too," she said to him, that lingering heat of embarrassment still clinging to her ears. "I've seen so many lifetimes I could have with you. I've seen so many directions our relationship could go. But in every single one of them, I love you with all of my heart. Even if you end up trying to destroy the world and I have to stop you — even in the futures where I have to say goodbye — I can never stop loving you."

"You will _never_ have to say goodbye to me," Darkstalker said with confidence. His voice was determined and caring, but Clearsight noticed that the corners of his mouth were rising impishly. "I found a way to make sure of that."

Darkstalker was so sweet and lovable in that moment that Clearsight didn't have the heart to tell him that that wasn't true —that whatever it was that he had done, it wasn't enough to dissolve the darker paths that might lay ahead. They were muted and unlikely, but she could still feel their coldness haunting her mind. Nonetheless, she still wanted to see what this was all about. "Go on," she said to him, beaming brightly as her impatience began to well up again. "I haven't looked ahead to see what you're going to show me, but if you test my patience any further, I just might."

"Okay, okay," Darkstalker said quickly. He turned around and reached into his pack, pulling out a necklace with a solid gold amulet dangling at the end. "This is for you," he said as he placed it in her hands.

Clearsight looked down and studied Darkstalker's gift. The gold chains were so tiny and intricately made that the thread felt more like silk than metal. The amulet had a carving of an hourglass on it, with the illustration of sand in the upper bulb pouring down the neck and into a tiny pile in the lower bulb. When her talons traced along its edge, she realized that this actually wasn't an amulet at all: the etched hourglass design was a shell, hiding something behind it. There was a small hinge at the bottom. Being careful not to carve any scratches into the design, she opened it up and looked inside.

It was a watch. Two little clock hands were pointed at the very top, completely unmoving. The little gears that lay behind the glass covering were all completely still. There was a winding knob at the top, which appeared to be pulled out. She lifted a hand to wind it up and set it to the correct time.

"Don't set it yet!" he said, taking her hand and stopping her from touching the knob. "I need to explain what it does first."

Clearsight nodded, then lowered her hand. "I'm listening."

"You deserve the future that you want," he said. "And you shouldn't have to worry about the possibility of losing it. So if that ever happens — if we ever reach a point where all those good futures are gone forever and there's no hope of getting them back again — just use this watch, and you can start over."

" 'Start over'?" Clearsight echoed. "What do you mean?"

"Pick a special time — " Darkstalker explained, "when the future is bright and you're as happy as you can be. In that moment, _that's_ when you should set this watch. Because that's going to be the time you'll go back to when you use it again. Once you set this watch, the enchantment will activate. Press that knob again, and everything becomes undone — regardless of how many years pass. You'll go back to the time when you were happy again. And once you're there, the future will once again be in your hands."

An electric chill went down Clearsight's back. She looked back down at the watch and touched its rim with the tip of her talon. "It … can send me back in time?"

"Back to one exact moment." Darkstalker sat down next to her, looking at the watch himself. "Choose that moment wisely."

Clearsight blinked slowly, closing the watch and facing Darkstalker once more. "Why did you make it just one moment?"

Darkstalker turned his head to one side. "What do you mean?"

"If you were able to make an enchantment like this, couldn't you also let me control how far I wanted to go back?"

"Ah," Darkstalker said, a little awkwardly. "Yes, I suppose I could have. But I wanted this to be a failsafe, not a crutch." He reached out and grasped Clearsight's hands. "I don't want you to ever have to use this, Clearsight. I just want you to be happy for a change. I want you to enjoy the present without worrying so much about the future all the time. I was afraid that if you were able to go back to whatever time you wanted, you'd use that power so much that you'd never end up actually making it to the future."

Clearsight looked down, embarrassed. That was probably true. If she had that power, she'd cross-examine her choices so much and constantly retry everything in order to make sure that the world stayed as bright as possible. Darkstalker probably made the right call.

Would this gift help, though? She still didn't feel safe moving forward without worrying about the future. She still shivered at the thought of letting Darkstalker's heart fill with chaos. She still saw futures with fire and tyranny and blood — futures that she couldn't allow. "How come this isn't changing what I can see?" she asked, partly to herself. She figured she would have used this long before things got as bad as some of those futures.

"That was my doing," Darkstalker said, understanding what she meant. "I made sure that the watch doesn't impact our visions of the future. For some reason, the enchantment by itself seemed to interfere with our powers, and everything became all warped and blurry. I had to add that amendment in to make sure I could still see the future." Darkstalker rubbed the back of his head. "This took a lot of do-overs to get right — I used up a couple of pages of my scroll in the process."

Clearsight laughed a little. "Can I see them?" she asked. "The enchantments. I want to make sure I know how it works."

"Sure!" Darkstalker said, rising to his feet. "I can show it to you after school. Just hold onto it for now." He started kicking sand at the fire to snuff it out, then looked back at Clearsight, his eyes warm and bright. "Do you like it?"

"Of course I do." Clearsight brought her gift close to her chest and pinned her ears. "I'm sorry, I probably don't sound very enthusiastic, do I?"

"Do you think it will help?" he asked. "Knowing that you have an out — a way to fix things if everything goes wrong. Do you think you'll have an easier time not worrying?"

"Oh, Darkstalker." Clearsight smiled sadly at him. "I need to worry, at least a little bit. You want the dragon who guides you towards the best future to care about her job, right?"

"I also want her to relax a little bit. I'm supposed to make her job as easy as possible, after all." He beamed at her.

"You've been pretty successful, I'll admit," she said. "My vision attacks have been getting worse. But as far as I can tell, the future really is getting better." She hoped that was true. Sometimes she worried that she was just getting better at ignoring the less desirable outcomes.

"And we can keep it that way." He took her hands, and closed his talons around them. "We deserve to be this happy for the rest of our lives, Clearsight. I want to make your life just as much better as you've made mine."

Clearsight took a moment to let herself believe him. Darkstalker had been doing a good job at teaching her to focus on the world around her instead of the world in her head.

Maybe she _would_ let herself live more in the present now that she had this new option.

But maybe she'd still let the future bother her a little bit too. She backed away from Darkstalker and put a hand on her head. "Oh, no," she said, barely more than a whisper in her voice.

"What?" Darkstalker said, his face suddenly awash with worry. "What is it?"

"Something terrible." She put her hand down and looked back at Darkstalker, her face filled with sadness. "I don't know if we can stop it."

"What is it?" he asked, louder this time. "Tell me, Clearsight."

Clearsight looked down. "We're … we're going to be late for school."

She managed to catch a glimpse of his dumbfounded face before he erupted into a fit of laughter. She giggled back, uncontrollably.

"Don't scare me like that," he growled playfully, taking her and pulling her into a hug.

"We really are, though," she said, shoving him away. "You know I'm not a very fast flier."

"We can get there on time." Darkstalker stretched his wings and looked back at Clearsight. "I know — I'll stay behind you and nip you in the tail if you slow down too much."

"You wouldn't!" But Darkstalker was already circling around, stalking the tip of her tail. She shrieked and took to the sky, feeling like a little child as Darkstalker followed close behind her. As she pushed herself to lengthen her distance from him, the visions of tardiness began to fade away.

* * *

**A/N:** Thank you for your patience, everyone! This was a challenging chapter to write: it was hard finding the right way to balance out dialogue and introspection without repeating the same sorts of things I'd already said in the last chapter. To those of you who were following this story before this was uploaded, I apologize for the longer wait.

I forgot to mention this in the last chapter, but I'd like to give a special thanks to my friend **ShadowVulpi** for beta-reading these chapters for me. She's a very skilled writer, and I'll be communicating with her extensively as I write this story, bouncing plot ideas off of her and discussing directions the story could go.

Let me know what you think! Should Clearsight go on ahead and set the watch as soon as possible? Was Darkstalker's gift really sweet, or a bit of a letdown? Are you starting to get sick of all of the fluffy romance and hoping to see some action? I'm always happy to hear your impressions.


	4. Chapter 3

**o**

**CLEARSIGHT**

Listener sat with Clearsight during lunch and apologized for getting worked up the other day.

"I just caught Bighorns flirting with Vision," she said miserably, picking at the potatoes on her plate. Clearsight realized that she had never actually caught the name of Listener's boyfriend until now — not even in her visions of the future. "He dumped me before I could even call him out on it," her friend went on. "You were right all along."

It may have sounded cruel, but Clearsight was incredibly pleased to hear this. She wanted to tell Listener that this was probably the best possible outcome, all things considered. She would have handled their inevitable breakup much worse if they'd kept dating for another month or two, which was a very likely possibility. But she refrained, knowing that her friend would have preferred not to hear it. "I owe you an apology too," she said instead. "I wasn't very respectful to you when I said the things I did yesterday. It was just hard to keep quiet when I knew what could have happened."

"I know," Listener said. "It's okay. You can't really help but see some of those futures, can you?"

"Yes, but I can try harder to keep you from learning about them. You're doing your part by staying out of my thoughts: I should be doing my part too."

Listener radiated a bit of happiness. By the end of lunch, they were best friends once again, all sins were forgotten, and Clearsight was happy.

* * *

After school, Clearsight followed Darkstalker back to his house. This time, his mother was there to greet them. Clearsight had been a little bit antsy about meeting her, and she still felt butterflies in her stomach when she saw Foeslayer for the first time. But she looked happy to see them when they showed up: her head was poking eagerly out of the front window, above a bed of marigolds whose orange blossoms broke the monotonous gray of the front porch and the overcast night sky. "Welcome home, Darkstalker," she said as the two of them touched down in front of the door. "Is this Clearsight?"

"That's right," Clearsight answered, bowing her head a little. "I'm Darkstalker's friend."

"My mother has been looking forward to meeting you," Darkstalker said, standing proudly beside her. "She knows that we're a little bit more than friends, by the way," he added quietly.

Clearsight blinked. Her ears nervously folded back. "You do?" she asked. "And you're okay with it?"

Foeslayer's eyes softened, but she had a smile on her face that refused to retreat. "Well, I'm nervous, as you could imagine," she admitted. "You're both going to learn that love is complicated, I'm sure. But I'm hopeful that you two will make each other happy."

Foeslayer looked down and paused for a long moment before circling around to open the door and let them in. Clearsight could almost hear the words she was keeping herself from saying in that moment. Love had brought a whole slurry of bittersweet consequences to Foeslayer's life, and she didn't want Clearsight to repeat those consequences. _Leave the worrying to me, Foeslayer,_ Clearsight said back to her silently._ I've been preparing for this my entire life._

She caught the smell of smoked salmon when she stepped inside, and her stomach growled. Foeslayer was already making her way to the kitchen, organizing some utensils on the countertops and gathering a few ceramic plates from a stack in a low cabinet. "Are you hungry?" she asked the two of them. "I brought back some leftover fish from the palace. I figured I'd roast them up and we could have them as a snack to have before dinner. They should be ready now."

"Oh, thank you, ma'am," Clearsight said, shedding a tiny smile at her. She wondered if Foeslayer knew that salmon was one of her favorite foods.

Darkstalker sat down at the dinner table and Clearsight sat beside him. She noticed how smooth and finished the table was. She could almost see her reflection in its glossy coating, and she was afraid to draw her talons over it in fear of making a scratch. Her own dinner table more closely resembled a picnic bench made from pieces of repurposed firewood.

When she looked back up, Foeslayer had placed two plates of pink salmon filets in front of them, each with a charred lemon slice resting on top of it. She sat down across from them with her own plate, and took her first bite.

"Darkstalker says you're quite a talented seer," Foeslayer said, licking her nose with her forked tongue. "Is that true?"

"She's even better than I am!" Darkstalker answered for her. "She could probably tell you your future right now."

"Oh, really?" Foeslayer said, leaning in curiously. "Is there anything you see that I should know about?"

Clearsight shot a disapproving glance at Darkstalker for a short moment. He knew that she had been trying to keep the extent of her powers a secret, at least for now. She wasn't exactly comfortable with Darkstalker talking so freely about them, even with his mother.

Nonetheless, she obliged and looked ahead, trying to see anything in her future worth noting. She explored a number of likely threads shallowly, and found nothing particularly noteworthy. Foeslayer was on friendly terms with Queen Vigilance, and she had Darkstalker to protect her if anyone tried to hurt her. Not to mention she had an earring on that kept her protected from farm: as long as she kept it on, she'd be okay.

She opened her eyes and shrugged modestly. "I'm afraid there's not too much I can tell you," she said. "I can only see the future from my own eyes, and it's not very often that we're in the same room together. So I didn't learn much — but you should be relieved to hear that. It probably means you're going to have a peaceful next few months."

"That's good," Foeslayer said, sounding relieved indeed. "No terrible prophecies of my inevitable demise?"

"None that I can see," Clearsight assured. _Well, except for that one where Queen Diamond abducts you … and those ones where you mysteriously vanish and nobody knows what happened to you._ But everyone was doomed in _some_ timelines. Some dragons were more likely to be doomed than others, and Foeslayer was quite low in the pecking order. If that ever changed, Clearsight would let Foeslayer worry about it then.

"Well, I hope all the same for your future as well," Foeslayer said, smiling brightly. "Have you thought about what you might want to do when you finish school? I know that Queen Vigilance is always interested in having more seers advise her during this war."

"Being an adviser to the Queen would be a dream job," Clearsight answered. "I'd probably have to get kind of lucky to catch her attention, though."

"She's hard to make an impression on, I'm afraid," Foeslayer agreed. "But I'd be happy to throw a positive word your way if she ever brings up the subject."

"Really?" Clearsight asked, pausing just before taking her last bite of salmon. "Thank you!"

This positive reception came as a genuine surprise to her. Not a lot of the potential introductions to Foeslayer were nearly this positive. Behind her cheerful outward demeanor was a genuine fear that she had of her son falling in love, and in a lot of futures she'd seen, that fear manifested itself in the form of disapproval. But this path brought Clearsight a warm, welcoming, and cooperative Foeslayer who went so far as to feed her a plate of her favorite food and promise her a good word with the Queen. She couldn't have anticipated this going any better.

By the time they were done eating, Foeslayer had officially announced her approval of Darkstalker's new girlfriend. She congratulated Darkstalker for meeting such a good dragon, and Clearsight was happy.

* * *

"We'll be in my room if you need us," Darkstalker called to his mother as he bounded down the hallway.

"And I'll be right outside," Foeslayer called from the kitchen. "Clearsight, please don't let him use any of his magic, alright? I know his powers are exciting, but they're very dangerous."

"Yes, ma'am," Clearsight said, smiling at Darkstalker as he passed a knowing grin back to her.

Darkstalker closed the door behind Clearsight and threw open the curtains in front of his window, letting the moonlight pool in. He took his scroll out from the cubby hole in his wall and unrolled it on the floor before gathering his blanket from his bed. Clearsight walked over curled up next to him, and he threw the blanket over them both and brushed his wing up against hers as he lay down. He used the tip of his talon to locate the enchantment he'd put on the watch. It was a long paragraph that, in Darkstalker's sloppy clawwriting, took up an entire length of scroll:

_Enchant this watch to forbid all future enchantments on it from having an impact on any seer's powers. Enchant this watch to keep ticking continuously once it is set. Enchant this watch's ticking noise to not be so incessantly annoying. Enchant the crown on this watch to turn into a button after it is used to set the watch, and to stay a button afterwards: when this button is pressed, enchant the watch to take Clearsight back in time to the moment when it was first set, such that when she returns to this moment, all of her memories, morals, and beliefs will preserved during her transfer back in time. Enchant this watch to be unbreakable to everyone except Clearsight. Enchant this watch so that when Clearsight shatters the glass, all previous enchantments are cleared._

Darkstalker hadn't been lying when he admitted to going through a lot of prototypes to get this enchantment right. There were a dozen or two test enchantments before it, and a dozen more lines of _'Clear this watch of all enchantments'_ between them.

She appreciated the thoughtfulness that went into the final spell, but that last part worried her. What was it for? What reason would she ever have to destroy that watch? If she'd accidentally broke it in the middle of a terrible future, she'd have no way of undoing things. And if she really ever decided that she wouldn't ever want to use it again, she could just hide it somewhere remote — like at the bottom of the ocean. _And then someone will find it a thousand years after I die, and then they'll press the button on it, and they'll bring me back to life, and they'll undo everything I did._

Clearsight suppressed the urge to shake her head. Of course that enchantment needed to be there. It made sure that once she got the future she wanted, she could finalize it and make sure it couldn't be undone.

Darkstalker looked up at Clearsight and bowed his head observantly, as if he were trying to read her face. "Does it seem alright?" he asked her. "I could make some revisions if you want."

"No, everything's fine! I'm just admiring the thought you put into it," Clearsight clarified. "For something you don't ever want me to use, you made it really usable."

Darkstalker let out a chuckle. "I guess I got a little obsessed with it the other day," he said. "I wanted to make sure it was perfect."

"And it _is_ perfect," Clearsight said, pushing her head up against Darkstalker's neck. "_Everything_ is perfect."

For just one breath, Darkstalker let out a low purr, and he curled the tip of his tail around Clearsight's. And she was happy.

"Do you think you'll activate it soon, then?" Darkstalker asked.

"Yes," Clearsight answered, without any hesitation. "I've made up my mind. I'm going to do it tonight."

"Are you sure?" Darkstalker asked straightening up. "I only just gave it to you today."

"And today has been one of the best days of my life." Clearsight pulled Darkstalker's blanket closer to her, its enchantment making her feel just as warm as she wanted to be. "I couldn't imagine a better day to return to. "

Darkstalker's tail tightened around Clearsight. When she turned to face him, his ears were pinned back, as if he were afraid of something — even though he had a cheery smile and bright eyes.

"What?" she said. "What's wrong?"

"Huh?" Darkstalker looked away for a second. "Um — it's nothing," he answered. "Just … no matter what ends up happening, please remember that I love you with all my heart. Because that's never going to change."

Clearsight cocked her head worriedly. Where did _that _come from? He wasn't going to do something dangerous or evil, was he? No, she'd be able to see it if he were.

With his wing, Darkstalker pulled Clearsight in closer and squeezed her, leaning in to brush his horns against hers. "Okay!" Clearsight said, giggling affectionately. "You're the loviest, doviest Darkstalker in all of the timelines. You've made your point. I won't forget it." She wiggled herself free of Darkstalker's hold and rose to her feet, using her wings to get the blanket off of her.

"You can't stay?" Darkstalker said, rising with her. "It hasn't even been an hour."

"My parents are on the verge of growing suspicious that I'm seeing someone," Clearsight said apologetically. "I know they're going to find out eventually, but I don't want them to find out tonight."

Darkstalker nodded sadly. "I understand," he said. "I'll see you tomorrow, then."

When she opened the door to go, Darkstalker jolted. "Wait!" he quickly said, before reaching towards his desk and grabbing a used black candle. He shuffled over to Clearsight on three legs and handed it to her. "For you. It's the one that I'd enchanted a couple days ago."

"Oh." Clearsight took the candle. A half-dozen visions flashed before her eyes of sleepless mornings where this would be by her side as she studied. She gazed back at Darkstalker and smiled warmly at him. "Thank you."

Darkstalker placed a hand on her shoulder. His talons dug into her scales tightly. "Now, fly safe on your way back. I'll see you at school first thing in the morning."

"Darkstalker, you're shaking," Clearsight said, stepping back for a moment. "What's the matter?"

Darkstalker dropped his arm and started fidgeting with it. "It's nothing — I just …." He looked at her, and she saw a great well of concern in his eyes. She looked sadly back at him, and lifted a rear leg to step forward a bit. He sighed, and sat down. His tail swished forward and twisted around his wrist. "I'm a little afraid of the Clearsight I'm going to see tomorrow, I guess," he admitted, looking down at the corner of his room. "I don't know if she's going to be you, or … someone who just came back from a terrible future."

Clearsight felt a wave of understanding wash over her. If Clearsight ended up rewriting time, then this would be the last moment of innocence that they'd get to have together — for Darkstalker, at least. If she ended up rewriting time, then Darkstalker would never witness the things she did, or experience the future she ended up living. "Oh, Darkstalker," she said, taking him in her arms and hugging him. "I know I can't promise that I'll be exactly the same dragon tomorrow as I am today. But you don't have to be afraid of whoever that dragon ends up being. I'm always going to be Clearsight. I love you. I always will."

She let go of Darkstalker and he looked into her eyes. He looked relieved, but he didn't say anything.

* * *

Darkstalker's candle rested atop Clearsight's nightstand. The reflections of the fire against the metal base of the candlestick shed a warm orange light into the room, giving Clearsight just enough light to inspect the watch a bit more closely.

She didn't notice it at first, but the hourglass design carved in the gold shell was present on both sides, in slightly different forms. On the outside, when the shell was closed, the hourglass was shown with almost all of the sand on top, as if the hourglass had just been flipped. On the inside, when the shell was opened, the hourglass was about half-empty, and she could see traces of the mound in the lower bulb etched in, with subtle dots here and there right beneath the falling stream of sand that came from above. She thought it was a cute little symbol, if a little corny.

It was a little past morning. Clearsight really should have been sleeping right now, but she felt too elated to get to bed early. How could everything have gone so perfectly? How could Darkstalker and Foeslayer and Listener have all brightened her up so much in the course of a single day?

She touched the crown of the watch. She was ready to activate it now; she didn't have a doubt in her mind. But on her flight home; she'd realized the weight of responsibility that activating this watch had. She realized that she _really_ didn't want to ever have to use it: she _had _to get things right the first time. She didn't want to undo years of reality. She didn't want to erase all of the fulfilling and wonderful lived experiences of everyone around her. She didn't want her life and her future to be reduced to nothing more than a single thread in the massive web of her visions.

_Only if I have to,_ she said to herself, clutching the watch tightly with both hands. _I still need to worry. I still need to make compromises. I still need to fight. Because I can only use this if I have no other choices left._

She took a deep breath and pulled the crown out. Then she spun the dial, and around and around the minute-hand went. When the hands pointed at the correct time — seven twenty-two in the morning, with the second hand pointed up top — she looked up at the hourglass looming over the watch, then down at the gears beneath the hands. Finally, she pushed the crown in.

_Click._

Clearsight had to blink a couple of times in order to notice what had happened. She'd never actually used a watch like this before, and the effects were subtle. It was ticking now — a quiet, almost inaudible march of periodic tapping sounds as the second hand circled around. When she set her talon aside from the crown, it looked exactly the same as it did before. It didn't look like a button, but like the crown of a watch. Nothing changed.

Afraid that she'd done something wrong, Clearsight tried pulling the crown up and setting it again. But when she tried to pull on it, it wouldn't give. The crown was stuck. Perplexed, she tried to loosen it by fidgeting around in other directions. When she pushed it in, she felt a tiny _click._ Immediately, the second-hand jumped back. It had been pointing at the '6' before, and now it was pointing back up to the '12,' ticking back around the numbers it had just passed thirty seconds ago.

Clearsight shook her head for a second. She waited ten seconds, then pressed the crown in again. The second-hand jumped back up. She waited a full minute, pressed the crown in, and this time the minute hand pointed from the 23rd tick mark to the 22nd.

Was it working? A part of her had expected something a little bit flashier, like a beam of light engulfing her when she went back in time, or something mystical like that. To make sure the enchantment truly had activated, Clearsight hopped up onto her bed and lay down on it. Then, she pressed the crown in again —

— and immediately she was standing in her room facing the watch. Seven twenty-two in the morning.

_By the moons, it's really working._ She tried one last test. She ripped the blankets off of her bed and threw them to the floor, and then took her pillows and threw them out of her room and into the dark hallway just outside. And when she grabbed the watch and pressed in the crown — seven twenty-two. She looked over to find that her bed was neatly made as it had been before she messed it up.

She was convinced. Closing the watch one last time, she went to her desk and opened her drawer of personal belongings — which mostly consisted of notes she'd written of particularly happy memories and futures that she liked going back and revisiting. She put the watch into the drawer and shut it. _And that's the last I'm ever going to see of it,_ she thought. _From this point forward, that watch doesn't matter. From this point on, the future is going to go the way I want it to go._

She stepped into her bed and threw her covers around her. The candle went out.

* * *

**A/N:** Silly Clearsight: if your convictions ended up being fulfilled, then I wouldn't have a plot. :)

Thanks again to **ShadowVulpi** for beta-reading this chapter, and thank you for reading it. I'm always eager to hear your thoughts and impressions, so never be afraid to post a review — even if you're just telling me that you like (or hate) the story so far. Your feedback so far has been inspiring and constructive. There's always more for me to learn, and always new perspectives for me to hear.

See you in the next chapter!


	5. Chapter 4

**o**

**DARKSTALKER**

Darkstalker had never been so uncertain about the purity of his soul until now.

He _thought_ that he was a good dragon, and he thought he always would be. And he figured that if he'd ever needed to do anything bad, then he would be able to convince Clearsight that it was for a greater good. Never did he feel like his soul was being corrupted by animus magic, not once.

And yet Clearsight still worried. He'd never really thought critically about what that might've meant. It could have simply meant that for all of the numerous possible futures that Clearsight saw, she was uniquely good at focusing on the worst ones. Darkstalker liked to believe that that was the case.

But even granting that (and Darkstalker was only just now starting to consider the possibility that maybe that assumption was wrong), it still meant that those possible futures were still _possible_ futures. And Clearsight might have just come back from one right now.

_Oh moons, what am I going to say to her?_ he thought, anxiety creeping into his scales and causing his talons to tap nervously on the ground as he waited for her to show up to school. _What can I possibly say to make her feel better?_ He'd thought of a hundred different things already. _'I'm so sorry, Clearsight: I don't know what could have gotten into me, but I'll never do what I did again.'_ And, _'I know you're probably not very happy with me, but the dragon you're talking to never actually did any of those terrible things.'_ And, _'I might have failed you once, Clearsight, but now that you know what caused things to go wrong, you can help me do a better job this time.'_

A gruff sigh escaped from his snout. This feeling was weird. It was _unnatural_. What happened to his confidence that everything was going to be okay? Why was he so unsure all of a sudden? The odds were in favor of Clearsight telling him that nothing happened, right?

"Darkstalker? What happened?"

Darkstalker blinked and looked over at his sister, who had been standing beside him. She had a curious, ditzy stare directed at him, which usually indicated that she was thinking quickly and in many strange directions at once. "What are you talking about?" he said to her. "Nothing happened." _Not to me, at least._

"But I can hear lots of little bubbles popping inside you," she said, cocking her head. "They've been popping all day. I thought you'd woken up filled with soap."

Darkstalker winced a little. "I'm okay, Whiteout," he said. "Maybe I'm just filled with soap because I want to make sure I'm extra clean today."

Whiteout smirked. "You're very clean, brother. Three crescent moons are shining in your soul."

"Oh," Darkstalker murmured. "Well, if you say that's a good thing, then I'll take your word for it."

Clearsight swept into the grounds, landing beside several other students touching down from the sky onto the landing clearings. Darkstalker darted for her the moment he saw her, nearly crashing into another student along the way. "Hey, watch where you're going!" the stranger snapped, beating his wings and keeping front two hands backed up and off the ground to avoid him.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Darkstalker shuffled around him and bounded towards Clearsight again, as the dragon went the other way mumbling something in his mind about Darkstalker thinking he owned the place now that everyone knew he was an animus.

Clearsight, who had clearly seen the entire thing, took a couple of steps towards Darkstalker as he approached. "Can you go _one_ day without winning my heart with your smoothness?"

"Did you use it?" Darkstalker asked, ignoring her quip.

Clearsight blinked. "Use what? The watch?"

"Good evening, Clearsight!" Whiteout called as she followed up on Darkstalker's rear. "You're looking very isotropic today."

"Uh … thank you, Whiteout," Clearsight responded awkwardly. She looked back at Darkstalker with a small smile. "I set it, if that's what you mean."

Darkstalker held his breath. There was relief welling in him, but it was guarded. "And you didn't … come back from anything?"

Clearsight shook her head. "I did use it to get a bit of extra sleep, but that's it."

A smile bloomed on Darkstalker's face. "That's it? Really? That's — oh, that's _wonderful_, Clearsight!" He scooped her up and twirled her around, squeezing her wings closer into his chest. "I knew it! I knew you didn't have to worry."

"Um, actually no, I kind of do," Clearsight protested, wriggling herself free from Darkstalker's hold.

Darkstalker shook his head. "If I destroyed the world in this reality," he argued, "then you would have gone back and I wouldn't witness you telling me that you didn't use the watch. Since you're telling me that you never used the watch, I'm clearly never going to do anything terrible. QED."

"I … don't think that's how it works," Clearsight said, though she sounded a little uncertain.

"I don't care how it works. All I care about is you. You're exactly the way you were before, and that's exactly how I wanted you to be." He smiled brightly and hugged her again.

"Clearsight!"

Darkstalker brought his arms down and faced the sky. Amid the other dragonets flying down to the school, he spotted a gray-bellied NightWing with silver teardrop scales against her eyes flying their way. Clearsight's friend, Listener.

She landed gracelessly in front of them, galloping to a halt after touching the ground. She whirled up to Clearsight and grabbed one of her talons, pulling her away from Darkstalker. "Clearsight. I need to speak with you right now — _alone_," she said, casting a quick glance at Darkstalker. Her mind reeked with distrust.

"Why?" Clearsight asked, tilting her head.

Listener's voice quieted down. "I have a new idea for our _school project_," she explained. "But I wanted to run it by you first."

_Ah, Project: Free the Scavengers._ Clearsight had already spoken with him about their scheme to set the trapped scavengers in the school free. He thought it was kind of a silly idea, but he respected it. Listener was the only other dragon Darkstalker knew who actually realized how smart those sorry little creatures were. He completely supported her efforts to set them free. A part of him even wanted to help them. But he didn't want to risk getting himself in trouble with the school — not when so many eyes were already on him. He had his own world of plans and plots to worry about. He could let Clearsight and Listener handle this one on their own.

"Sounds pretty important," Clearsight said, grinning tiredly at her friend. "We can go to the arboretum: it's always quiet this time of day. I'll talk to you later, Darkstalker."

Darkstalker nodded as she walked off with Listener, flicking his tail joyfully.

Whiteout smiled up at her brother. "I like her," she said to him. "For the dragon of chaos, her stitching is unusually straight."

" 'Dragon of chaos'?" Darkstalker repeated, cocking his head at Whiteout. "You're not talking about Clearsight, are you? She's the least chaotic dragon in the world."

"I know! It's so curious, isn't it?" Whiteout began to walk towards the classrooms. The dragons ahead shuffled aside to make way for her and Darkstalker. "But I can see the snakes tangled in her yarn. And they don't need to bite her to teach her about disorder."

Darkstalker hummed thoughtfully. Sometimes he got the impression that his sister had powers far beyond his or Clearsight's. When she looked back up at him, she let out a gentle laugh and nudged him with her wing. "My brother appears to be birdwatching."

"It's nothing," he said, this time paying little mind to whatever that might have meant. "Some of the things you say make me worry sometimes is all."

Whiteout shook her head, and her eyes glistened at him. "You're not a fretful dragon, brother, so don't fret. I have faith that she can win the future without your gears to guide her."

"I know," Darkstalker said. "I should probably forget about that silly watch, shouldn't I?"

"You should like that strategy," Whiteout agreed. "You've given Clearsight enough hope to try it out herself."

"I did?" Darkstalker looked ahead as he walked up the stairs into the courtyard. "That's good to hear." _We'll forget about it together, then. I've been burdening my mind with it for long enough._

And forget about it he did.

He forgot about it when he left school that night, and huddled into his room to harmlessly enchant another item.

He forgot about it when he met Fathom and Indigo for the first time at the welcoming party in the Queen's palace.

He forgot about it when he scraped a dagger through his chest to test out his enchanted scales.

He forgot about it when he watched in grave lament as his mother slowly flew towards her awaiting doom in the Kingdom of Ice.

He forgot about it when he captured Arctic in the middle of betraying the NightWings, and when he punished him for his crimes in front of the tribe.

And he forgot about it when he flew to Agate Mountain to meet with Clearsight.

But when Clearsight's bracelet slipped from her wrist onto his, and he saw her mind unguarded for the first time in years, he remembered. Because in the midst of all of the terrible futures that Clearsight saw before her, she didn't forget.


	6. Chapter 5

**o**

**CLEARSIGHT**

There were too many emotions coursing through Clearsight's brain for her to fly straight. The overwhelming sadness, fear, and confusion churning inside her competed with her need to focus on flying in the right direction and at a steady pace. When a light gust of wind hit her, she lost her balance and plummeted towards the rainforest. Many slow heartbeats passed until her mind snapped back to attention and she realized she was falling. After flattening her wings and returning on-course once again, she sighed tiredly. In an effort to stagnate the battle warring on inside her, she tried to find one thought to latch onto so that the others would migrate further into her cognitive periphery.

Her visions … they were pointing her towards Fathom. He was in the rainforest somewhere, on an island somewhere, planning a future with Indigo somewhere. It wouldn't be long before she spotted him.

But it wasn't until she had spent nearly an hour traversing through different futures before she'd decided to go into the Rainforest Kingdom. Would she really have searched all of those other regions to find him? She saw futures where she did. She saw futures where she scanned the Claws of the Clouds to find any trace of Fathom and Indigo. She saw futures where she stopped in SandWing cities to ask locals if they'd seen them. She saw futures where she ran into IceWing platoons and got torn apart by their razor-sharp claws. She saw futures where she made the tireless journey to the Kingdom of the Sea, just to see if the two had actually returned there. They were all hopeless futures that yielded months of dead ends and frustration and hunger and sleeplessness.

She could only imagine that she would have only decided to take any of those paths if she'd known she'd find Fathom at the end of them. But using her powers, she confirmed that _none_ of those paths were the right ones. Why would she be able to see them? Why would she able to see the outcomes of directions she would never take? The only path that led to Fathom took her into the Rainforest. So that was the path she took, and as a result she found herself in a paradox where she was following a direction that her future self never would have taken without the help of her future sight.

Some time last year, she went to the library and dug through the shelves to find anything that would tell her more about this phenomenon. Her effort lasted a week, even with the help of her clairvoyance. And in the end, she found only one passage on it, written by a NightWing named Nocturne.

_This curious case of anticipatory causality, where future visions guide present actions even when future visions don't seem likely to occur, is not due to any ripple in reality's fabric, nor is it due to divine intervention. (Nor am I lying about this phenomenon, as some of my colleagues have suggested.) Instead, I believe it's simply a mechanism that fixes instabilities. What happens when we seers seek the counsel of our own clairvoyance? We use our most vivid visions to guide our actions, and so the probability of our actions becomes a function of the vividness of our visions. But the vividness of our visions is already a function of the probability of our actions! When this degeneracy happens, there's only one way to resolve it: our powers collapse to focusing on one vision at a time. And that vision is simply whichever one we are most inclined to do._

She found the explanation lacking in some way. It felt it was simply saying, 'our powers are able to do this,' when she wanted to see a broader explanation for _how_ her powers worked that way. Still, the author seemed knowledgeable. Clearsight was always too busy to read more of her writings; she regretted never finding the time to look more into her.

The rainforest trees blurred below her. Murky rivers and black marshlands dwelled between the great canopies that hugged the south Pyrrhian sea. The chirping of the cicadas and katydids reached up to the sky, piercing the winds, and the poignantly organic smell of soggy humus mingled with the fresh evening mist that surrounded her.

After she'd put Darkstalker to sleep, reality started to feel surreal — as if the world around her were on the verge of vanishing completely. Of course, in a significant sense, it was. The only option that seemed viable to her at the moment was going back to her old house and finally using that watch. And now that her mind was committing to actually using it, the world suddenly felt like it didn't matter — like it was nothing more than an empty, unpopulated shell that lost all of the hope and potential that it had once harbored.

She'd done her best to forget about the watch — to put it in the back of her mind and act like it never existed. Had she done a good enough job? The memory of the night he gave it to her came back from time to time, but she always dispelled the thought of actually touching it again. Every time she'd remembered it, she told herself she would only use it if she absolutely had to.

But did it change anything? Did her knowledge of its existence keep her from fretting too much? If she'd known that she didn't have the option to turn back time, would this all have been avoided the first time around?

She could never forget the look that Darkstalker had given her before her bracelet slipped onto his wrist. The genuine hurt and disbelief that was in his eyes — that would be burned in her memory forever. _My poor, poor Darkstalker._ She closed her eyes tightly. _I'm so sorry for hurting you._ Right now, she felt like falling into the rainforest, curling up into a ball, and never showing her face to anyone ever again.

A vision flashed. She'd be talking with Fathom and Indigo soon. There was more to her vision, though. Flared teeth, the swinging of thick tails, angry snarls. _Huh? What does that mean? They wouldn't actually _hurt _me, would they?_

Up ahead was an island not far off from the shoreline. It was mostly sand and tropical shrubs that inhabited it, as if it were a chunk of the Bay of a Thousand Scales that broke off from the Sea Kingdom and drifted too far from home. That was it. That was where they were.

When she landed on the beach, the sand gave to her talons, sifting carelessly around her claws. When she turned around, she could see the sun setting over the ocean. She imagined that they could see the sun rising on the other side of the island too. She wondered which side they'd build their house, which side of the sky they wanted the balcony hand-carved by Fathom to overlook.

A guarded looking SeaWing came out from the grasses further in the island, and Clearsight immediately recognized her as Indigo. She glowered unwelcomingly. "What do you want?" she snapped.

_Is something wrong with her?_ she immediately wondered. _Did her mind warp from what Darkstalker did to her?_ "Indigo, it's me, Clearsight," Clearsight said gently, taking a step forward. She'd hoped that letting Indigo know who she was would calm her down, but nothing in her features changed.

The SeaWing spread her wings slightly. "Just tell us why you're here and leave, alright? You've given us enough trouble already."

Behind her, Fathom rustled forward and emerged from the ferns behind Indigo. His eyes widened and he blinked a couple times. "Clearsight? What are you doing here?" He trotted ahead of Indigo. Darkstalker's scroll was still strapped to his shoulder. "Did it work? Did you stop him?"

Clearsight nodded. "We're safe. He can't hurt anyone anymore."

"Then what do you want from us?" Indigo pressed, baring her teeth. "If you need Fathom to use his magic again, then forget it."

"No, no, I don't! I just came here to find out what Darkstalker did. Indigo, what happened to you?"

Indigo paused for a second. "You didn't know?"

Clearsight's expression crumpled as if she'd just been betrayed. "Of course not! Darkstalker was doing so many things with his magic without me knowing. I never would have let him do what he did if I'd found out about it, I promise!"

Indigo cast her eyes off of Clearsight, but didn't say anything back. Fathom answered for her. "He trapped her in that dragon statue. Remember? The wooden one that I made for him?"

"Oh my stars." Clearsight shrunk down and pinned her ears as she faced Indigo. "I'm so sorry."

"I didn't experience anything while I was trapped, so it wasn't _that_ bad," Indigo said. "Not that Darkstalker would have cared if I did, though."

"Did you find any other spells?" she asked. "Was there anything else he did without me knowing?"

"Yeah," Fathom said. "A lot of things. He enchanted a knife to kill an IceWing every full moon until he summoned it to stop. He enchanted Queen Diamond to have terrible nightmares of the ways he planned to kill her. He enchanted a goblet to make me forget about the feelings I had for Indigo, and —"

"WHAT?" Indigo shrieked. "So he _did_ enchant it! I was right!"

"You were," he replied, remorse breaking through his eyes. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have doubted you. I should have listened."

"How did he cast these spells without me knowing?" she pressed. She couldn't let this happen again. She couldn't let him do anything like this without her knowing.

Fathom fidgeted a little bit, then opened up the leather case containing Darkstalker's scroll. He unfurled it on the sand and pointed at some spaces between the enchantments. "See these empty spaces?" he said. "There are enchantments written there, in invisible ink. Those are the enchantments he didn't want you to find out about."

Now that Clearsight looked more closely at the scroll, she noticed the gaps between the visible spells. Were there enchantments written in _all_ of them? Had he really cast that many spells behind her back?

He wasn't always like this. That was clear enough in the spells: they were so kind early on. They were selfless, and thoughtful — little windows into the profile of the dragon that Clearsight had fallen in love with long before they'd ever met. But then he transformed. The spells became more self-serving, or cast out of hatred. The gaps began to form between the words. The handwriting became sharper and more anguished. Something — or many things, perhaps — had changed him.

"I can fix this," she said, mostly to herself. "This didn't need to happen."

Fathom looked up at Clearsight and rolled up the scroll and slid it back into its case. "What do you mean?" he asked, sounding a little worried.

"Darkstalker enchanted something for me a long time ago," she explained. "A watch."

"The one that can take you back in time? That huge enchantment near the beginning of the scroll?"

Clearsight nodded. "I'll go back," she said. "I can make things better."

"Clearsight, wait!" Fathom scrambled forward a couple steps, looking like he was ready to sprint into the sky at a moment's notice. "Don't go back, please. This outcome isn't that bad, is it? We're all safe from Darkstalker. You don't need to fix anything. I think we won in this timeline."

"Darkstalker didn't need to turn evil," Clearsight said, shaking her head. "He could have become so much better."

"I don't care," Fathom said, his voice quivering. "I can finally be happy now. I can settle down somewhere here in the rainforest and spend the rest of my life with Indigo, and I don't think I could ask for a better life. Please don't change it, Clearsight."

A dark vision thundered into Clearsight's mind. This was where the violence was coming from. She saw it more clearly now — claws raking against her scales, teeth ripping into her wings, the underwater image of the rippling sun, slowly fading away as Indigo pulled her down into the ocean.

The urgency pulsed through her with every heartbeat. Forget about convincing Fathom that this timeline ought to be changed; she might not even get out of here alive. He was desperate to keep things the way they were, and he was going to let Indigo do whatever it took to keep her from changing the past.

Neither of them were at that point yet. At least, not by the looks of it. Clearsight could save herself, but the only way she could was by lying. Saddening her eyes, she looked down at the sand and nodded. "Okay," she said.

Fathom straightened up a little. "...Really?" he asked, relief flooding his features.

"Yes," she said. To accentuate her act, she somberly lowered her ears. "I'm sorry, Fathom. You're right. It wouldn't be fair to anyone if I undid everything, I know that. I just — I don't want to live without Darkstalker. I still love him so much." Real tears began welling in her eyes. Sorrow wasn't a hard emotion for her to summon right now.

"Oh, Clearsight." Fathom stepped forward and nudged her with his snout. "You don't need Darkstalker with you to be happy. You deserve to be with someone better than him — someone who isn't a liar and a villain."

_Darkstalker can be that dragon,_ she wanted to say. _I don't want anyone else _but_ Darkstalker to be that dragon._ "I know," she said instead, curling her head around his neck. "But I don't know what I'm going to do without him."

Fathom looked back at Indigo. She hesitated for a second, then nodded. Turning back to Clearsight, he said, "You can stay with us. For now, at least. Until you've gotten over your grief."

"No," Clearsight said. "I'm sorry Fathom, but I can't stay with you. I gave you Darkstalker's scroll partly to make sure I would never find it either. If I stay with you, then I might find out where you hid it. And if I find out where you hid it, I might use it to bring Darkstalker back, even though I know what he'll end up doing."

Fathom gave her a look of pure understanding — as if those words had pierced through his scales and spoken directly to his heart. "The stupid things that love could make us do..." he murmured quietly. "You should probably go, then. We'll make sure not to let you stay if you change your mind."

"Thank you, Fathom." She stepped forward and hugged him tenderly. "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too." He brushed his cheek against hers. "You'll find a happier life, Clearsight, I know it. Keep searching for better futures and one will show up."

_That's exactly what I plan to do. _Clearsight nodded, then backed up towards the shore. She wanted to say one or two more words to him, but she already felt an uncomfortable sense of guilt starting to settle inside of her, and she was worried that it would start to show if she stayed any longer. So she turned around, spread her wings, and took to the sky.

It was well into the night when she made it back to the Night Kingdom. Its emptiness was haunting. At an hour where NightWings would normally slip in and out of the skyline like a city of shadows, the same skyline was desolate. No dragon was perched atop any of the crooked brown canyons. No puffs of fire ignited from hungry NightWings hunting for sleeping grebes. There wasn't even a stray candle in any of the windows of the deserted houses. The entire kingdom was quiet.

Not even her parents were there. In some of her earlier visions, the ones that warned her of what could happen if she went back to the Kingdom too soon after putting Darkstalker to sleep, she saw that her mom and dad had fallen back to go looking for her. She was able to tell that they'd stayed behind for a long time trying to find their daughter again, but she didn't know if they ever caught up with the rest of the tribe after they gave up. _Poor mom and dad. I can't imagine how worried they must be right now._

She dipped into the canyon where her house was. Pitch black shadows swallowed her. She had no trouble seeing, but without the rushlights and lanterns that normally dotted the cavities, it was hard for her to figure out where she was going. After all this time, her family had never moved. They'd had enough money to do so, thanks to Clearsight's patronage with the Queen, but there was a sentimentality attached to their dwelling that compelled them to stay. Her parents didn't get along very well with Queen Vigilance either, and they preferred living somewhere where she would have been reluctant to visit.

As luck would have it, the one candle that remained alight in all of the Night Kingdom happened to come from her house. It was dimly lit within one of the inner rooms, and she could only catch a glimpse of the glow it cast on one of the walls inside. But it called out to her like a raven's caw in a snowstorm. _Maybe they're still waiting for me after all._ She wouldn't have minded that. It would be a nice last memory of this reality — letting her parents know that she was alive and safe and that they didn't need to worry about what might have happened to her.

But when she walked into her house, no one called her name or rushed forward to sweep her into their wings. She was greeted with silence, and nothing more.

She stepped through the living room and into the hallway that led to the bedrooms. The light that she spotted from outside was coming from her own room. The door was open, and when she stepped inside she saw that Darkstalker's candle was burning brightly. The enchantment that he'd cast on it must have prevented it from ever going out, because after all these years, the last stub of wax never fully burned away.

She opened the drawer to her desk, and reached inside. She panicked for a moment when her talons didn't immediately brush on the watch: she worried it might have gotten stolen, or her parents had hidden it for some reason. But she when she reached further, all the way to the end of the drawer, she felt it tucked away in the back corner. She gripped it tightly and pulled it out.

It was just as shiny and spotless as it was the day Darkstalker had given it to her. The etching of the hourglass was just as beautiful. The ticking sound was just as pleasant and quiet. She opened the protective cover and looked at the ticking hands. It was nearly midnight.

It was an easy decision — she'd made up her mind the moment she slipped the bracelet onto Darkstalker — but she hesitated before pushing the button on it. There was a rumbling feeling in her gut that was forcing her to really think about it. A feeling of guilt. Fathom and Indigo — of course she didn't want to have to lie to them. And of course she didn't want to ruin their happiness by erasing a world where they both were happy for once. In the midst of all this chaos that Darkstalker and this terrible war had thrown on them, they were the only ones that managed to leave this adventure in a better shape than when they'd started it.

She felt terrible for them, but she knew she had to do this. Foeslayer deserved a better fate than the one she ended up with. Whiteout deserved to live her life with a family who loved and accepted her. The NightWing tribe deserved to not have to flee from the land that they'd lived on for thousands of years. Darkstalker deserved to be happy and safe with the love of his life. And she deserved to be with him.

_I'll make it up to you,_ she promised Fathom and Indigo. _I'll make sure all of us end up on a brighter path. The future will be better for you two as well._ If she couldn't ensure their happiness as well, then she would have failed just as much as she did this first time.

A draft flew into the house and licked the candle flame. Clearsight took a deep breath. There would be no turning back after this. Once she pressed the button on this watch, the past two years would be permanently undone. Meeting Fathom, freeing the scavengers, becoming the Queen's lead seer … she'd have to redo everything, even the things she did right.

She'd happily do it for a better future.

Clearsight pushed the button, and for a flash of a moment time stood still. Then midnight turned into seven twenty-two, and everything was different.

The first thing that she noticed was how much smaller she was. She never felt very large, especially when Darkstalker and Fathom's older ages ensured that she was the shortest among them. But she'd definitely grown a lot over the past two years than she realized.

Her wings were weaker too — she could feel their frailty without even extending them. She had Darkstalker to thank for that: he had to have taken her on a hundred different dates since this time. He had her flying all over the Night Kingdom constantly, building up her wing strength to what it should have been for someone her age.

On her desk lay history and math scrolls with content that she'd long since learned about (and long since forgotten, she realized). Old earrings and necklaces that she no longer cared for lay in a little jewelry box with paintings of red and purple flowers on the cover. Darkstalker's candle was taller and more full, though it still burned with the same brightness. The enchanted bracelet that shielded Darkstalker from her thoughts was once again on her wrist.

She was back. She was in the past — when Darkstalker was happy and lovable, and she was happy and in love, and the world enjoyed a bounty of hope and a promise for peace. She was back to the time that she'd decided she wanted to return to when things got too out of control.

Relief pulsed through her veins. When she looked ahead, she saw the bright futures that had once been lost. She saw her dragonets, and their delighted father teaching them how to wrestle. She saw their big house on a hill overlooking the ocean where the sunsets glowed like bonfires. She saw a set of old talons clutching hers as a big NightWing with big horns held her close under his wing.

She saw her second chance. Now she needed to take it.

* * *

**A/N:** My good friend **RayDaquaza** is now a second beta-reader for this story: special thanks to him and ShadowVulpi for making sure these chapters are in tip-top shape. Their feedback has been delightful so far.

I'm so excited for the upcoming chapters! It's finally time for a new world of possibilities to unfold. Please let me know your thoughts. :)


	7. Chapter 6

**o**

**DARKSTALKER**

"Darkstalker? What happened?"

Darkstalker blinked and looked over at his sister, who had been standing beside him while he waited for Clearsight. "What are you talking about?" he said to her. "Nothing happened." _Not to me, at least._

"But I can hear lots of little bubbles popping inside you," she said, cocking her head. "They've been popping all day. I thought you'd woken up filled with soap."

Darkstalker winced a little. "I'm okay, Whiteout," he said. "Maybe I'm just filled with soap because I want to make sure I'm extra clean today."

Whiteout smirked. "You're very clean, brother. Three crescent moons are shining in your soul."

"Oh. Well, if you say that's a good thing, then I'll take your word for it."

Darkstalker darted his eyes from his sister to the sky, holding his breath. _C'mon, Clearsight, just show up and tell me that you're the same dragon you were yesterday. Show up and let me know that you didn't turn back time because of something I did. I can't stand worrying like this._ He studied distant dragons in the sky, checking to see if she was among them. _She should be here by now. Where is she?_

"There she is," Whiteout said, pointing to a dark figure at the edge of his vision. When Darkstalker looked over, Clearsight was landing at the far end of the grounds, where the first trees of the forest were rooted.

"Clearsight!" Darkstalker immediately beelined for her. Clearsight was ready for him, staring up at him as he galloped down the hill. She was smiling at him. Smiling was a good sign, right? The Clearsight from yesterday would have smiled at him like that, right?

But why did she look like she was also about to cry?

"Good evening, my love," he said to her as he slowed to a halt, trying to bring out his romantic side for some weird reason that _totally_ didn't have anything to do with the fact that there was this incredibly ugly feeling of dread welling up in his stomach right now. "Did you activate the watch?"

Clearsight's eyes glistened. "Oh, Darkstalker," she said quietly.

"Clearsight?" Whiteout said, approaching hastily behind Darkstalker and slowing down next to him. She looked confused. "Clearsight, what happened? Your chrysalis has already shed. You should be spinning with silk by now."

Clearsight's face saddened immensely after Whiteout said that. She bowed her head apologetically at Darkstalker. "I need to tell you something."

Darkstalker didn't realize that he'd had a nervous smile plastered to his face until it started fading. "No," he whispered. "Please, don't tell me … it can't be."

"I had no choice." Her voice was waterlogged with remorse. "The things you were about to do…"

"No, it … but I … I'm so sorry, Clearsight." He'd had a whole list of things that he was prepared to say in case this happened, but he'd forgotten them all. That ugly worry he'd been feeling all night and day … it was real. He messed up somewhere — terribly. He let darkness slip into him. Clearsight's terrible visions were true.

But how? He didn't have the crippling dangers of animus magic corrupting his soul. He'd been smarter than his father. What had happened to him that made him turn? Wasn't he good? He didn't _feel_ evil. Maybe a little ambitious or daring, but not villainous. He couldn't imagine ever becoming anything like his father.

What did he put Clearsight through? How did he end up hurting her? He felt such a weird form of self-hatred, like he wanted to find the future version of himself that forced her to turn back time and beat him to a bloody pulp. And he wanted to hold Clearsight for the rest of his life and promise her that none of whatever she went through was going to happen again.

"Can I … hug you?" he asked quietly.

Clearsight nodded, and opened her wings. Darkstalker stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her. Clearsight rested her chin on his back, leaning into the warmth of his scales, and said something that Darkstalker was not expecting to hear: "I missed you."

It took him a second to understand those three words. After what he'd supposedly put her through, he figured he'd be the last dragon she wanted to see at this moment. He figured that neither of them would consider him to be worthy of her. It wasn't until many heartbeats of thought that he realized that she'd missed _him_ — the Darkstalker that he was right now, that had changed so much from Clearsight's point of view, and who had reverted back to a version that she could love without any hesitation.

Suddenly, he felt a little better about himself.

"Clearsight!"

Darkstalker took his arms off of Clearsight and faced the sky. Clearsight's friend, Listener, was approaching. She touched down in front of them, stumbling over herself a little from a faulty landing before she straightened herself again and grabbed Clearsight by her arm. "Clearsight. I need to speak with you right now — _alone_," she said, casting a mistrustful glare at Darkstalker.

Clearsight hesitated for a second, looking like she was trying to calculate something. "Um, why?" she eventually asked.

Listener's voice quieted down. "I have a new idea for our _school project_," she explained. "But I wanted to run it by you first."

"School project…?" Suddenly, Clearsight's eyes lit up. "Oh, right! I forgot about that."

"You _forgot?_ How could you forget? It's like, the most important thing we've been planning for all year."

"I guess I'm just … not really thinking straight today," Clearsight stammered out. "Let's go to the arboretum to talk about it. I'll see you later, Darkstalker."

Darkstalker nodded to Clearsight as she walked off with her friend, feeling dazed from the new reality he'd entered. He was deadpanned by the fact that Clearsight had changed so much on him so suddenly, but when he saw her with Listener in that moment, he still saw the same girl he'd loved since the very start. He saw a part of her that remained the same as before. And it was a part that he wanted to hold onto.

Now that he thought about it, it was also a part that he didn't really know about. When Clearsight was with him, she was always so hung up on being attentive to his own projects and ambitions, trying to make sure that he stayed in line. When she was with him, she barely ever talked about her own life, like third-year student gossip and her plan to free the scavengers with Listener. Darkstalker never bothered to ask her about those things.

_How selfish of you,_ an unfamiliar, self-conscious part of his mind whispered. _You two are supposed to be soul mates. You two are supposed to share your interests and burdens. You should go along with her, especially after all that she went through for you._

Promptly, he galloped over to them. "Hey, wait up!" he called out.

Clearsight and Listener stopped. Both of them looked confused, Clearsight slightly more so. "What is it?" Clearsight said.

He stopped in front of them and said, "I want to help."

"You don't even know what we're doing," Listener said before glancing accusatively at Clearsight.

"Oh, I do," Darkstalker said. "Those scavengers are suffering in there, perhaps more than any of us realize. I want to help you set them free."

"Gah! I told you not to tell him yet!" Listener hissed at Clearsight. She turned to Darkstalker and said, "Thanks, but we can do this on our own."

"Have you forgotten that I'm an animus?" Darkstalker pressed. "Have you forgotten how hard it is to pull something like this off without getting caught by the mindreading teachers? If we work together, we can make sure this whole thing goes smoothly."

Listener looked unsure now. Her ears flicked up and down, and she looked over to Clearsight. "Are you _sure_ we can trust him?"

Darkstalker stood straighter and looked expectantly at Clearsight. _Yes you can. Remember who I was._

When Clearsight looked back at him, she was so doubtful that Darkstalker was forced to look away in guilt. But then she said, "There's not a doubt in my mind. I'd be happy to let him in on our plans."

The look Darkstalker gave her seemed to make her flustered enough to hide her face.

Listener pawed at the ground. "Okay, if you say so. But you'd _better not_ mess this up. C'mon, let's get to the arboretum."

They walked over to a large garden of trees at the edge of the school. Nobody else was around to hear them talk, except for a few evening warblers nestling on the branches. When Darkstalker looked back, he saw that Whiteout had already left to get ready for her first class. "So, what have you worked out so far?" he asked them.

It struck him in that moment that it would probably help Clearsight to hear this summary from Listener as well. For her, it must have been years since all this had happened. He _hoped_ it'd been years, at least. He hoped that it at least took a long time before he breached the point of no return.

"The plan is to free them at night during the weekend," Listener explained. "Clearsight and I agreed to wait until the moons weren't as full as they are now. I checked the phase calendar, and the best time seems to be about two months from now, three weeks before the winter solstice. All of the moons will be crescent, and none of them are going to be in the sky for most of the night. We'll have the cover of darkness on our side."

Darkstalker raised one of his wings and brushed it against the leaves of the lower branches. "It might be a little risky waiting that long. What if a teacher reads your thoughts and finds out about your plans before then?"

Listener scoffed. "Do you really think we're that careless? Clearsight and I have been able to keep the teachers oblivious for over a year now. We can keep them in the dark for a bit longer." She glared up at him. "That is, unless _you_ end up spilling your thoughts in front of a teacher and ruining everything for us."

Darkstalker scrutinized her glare. "Have you ever been able to read my thoughts, Listener?" he asked dully.

Listener's lips pressed together for several seconds. "Perfect, so we have nothing to worry about," she finally said. "Besides, if they do find us out, it's going to be _after_ we've freed the scavengers, not before. I'd rather they start looking for a potential culprit while they're already busy preparing for midterms. They won't have time to go through a thorough investigation."

"That's a pretty good point," Darkstalker said. With a pensive stare, he studied Listener. She was smarter than he thought she was. There was normally a lot of wildness and ditziness going on in her brain, but now she had a raw spirit of adventure. And instead of that clumsy impulsiveness that she liked to embody, inquisitiveness and analytical thinking inhabited her thoughts. It seemed that when she decided to dedicate her mind to something that didn't involve a cute boy, it was actually capable of producing some useful ideas. "Do you have a plan for how we're going to free them?"

"I've tossed around a lot of different ideas," Listener said. "We don't want to stay in the school for very long while we're freeing them, so we need something that will get the job done quick."

"You don't plan on just opening the cages and letting them run out, do you?"

"Of course not! They need to be far away from our civilization if they're going to have any chance of surviving. I was thinking we could get some large bags to carry them in and fly them off. If we leave their cages open, the teachers might even think that they escaped on their own."

Darkstalker hummed, impressed. "You and Clearsight have practically figured everything out already."

"I think it was mostly Listener who came up with everything," Clearsight admitted. "I've just been lending some helping talons."

"The only thing I haven't worked out is where we'll let the scavengers go," Listener said. "It might depend on how the war progresses over the next month."

"How about North Beach?" Darkstalker suggested. North Beach was far enough away from the Great Diamond that not very many NightWing settlements were around it, but it was still reasonably far south from the border, meaning the scavengers would be unlikely to run into any IceWing skirmishes from the war.

Listener thought for a second, then nodded. "North Beach would be a good —"

"No!" Clearsight suddenly said.

Darkstalker looked over at Clearsight. She looked like a giant spider had just landed on her face, then darted away before she could react. "What's wrong?" Darkstalker asked her.

"North Beach would be — it wouldn't be a good idea."

"Why not?" Listener asked. "It's far away from our settlements, and the forest is nearby so they'd be able to hunt and forage."

"Did you have a vision?" Darkstalker asked.

Listener gasped, and promptly plugged her ears with her claws. "Nope, nope, lalalala, I can't hear you and your future sight. Don't even _think_ about telling me anything!"

Clearsight rolled her eyes and took two steps towards Darkstalker. "Listener and I almost got killed last time," she said quietly to him. "There were IceWing scouts on the shoreline and we just barely managed to hide from them."

Darkstalker blinked. "Last time?"

"Before I turned back time," Clearsight clarified.

"Oh." Something putrid twisted in his stomach at that recognition. Every time he acknowledged that Clearsight had used the watch, he wanted to grab her by her talons and curl her up in a ball and hold onto her to make sure she never changed again. "Wait — I'm sorry, did you say you were almost killed?"

"We need to get to class soon. I'll tell you more about it later." Clearsight nudged Listener with her snout, and she unplugged her ears.

"Are you done with your magical voodoo talk now?" she asked, and Clearsight nodded.

"North Beach might still be dangerous," Darkstalker said, thinking quickly. "Listener, you should ask your teacher where the school found the scavengers. If we find their den, we can drop them off there. Even if it's closer to other dragons, they'll at least be somewhere they're familiar with."

"I can do that," Listener said, nodding.

The school bell chimed, spooking the warblers in the trees and sending them into the air.

"Ack! I'm going to get detention if I'm late for class again." Listener tightened her satchel to her body and galloped away. "I'll see you later, Clearsight!"

Clearsight started her way back to the schoolyard, but Darkstalker stopped her by grabbing her tail. "Clearsight, wait."

Clearsight glanced behind her, and her wings shifted uneasily. "I'll tell you everything after school," she promised.

"Can you at least tell me how long it's been? How many years was it before I turned evil?"

She didn't answer, but there was a clear sadness in her eyes that sent chills down Darkstalker's spine. "After school," she repeated. "I still need time to study the futures and find the right words." Then she flicked her tail, causing Darkstalker to let go of it, and walked out of the arboretum.

Darkstalker sulked in the shadows of the trees for a moment. _You're not doomed_, he told himself. _You're still the greatest dragon in the world. Clearsight still has faith in you. You're going to rule the world benevolently and _not_ get corrupted by your power like you did last time._

_All you need to do is be careful, and your kingdom will be yours._

* * *

**A/N:** To those of you who have been following my story before this upload: I really hope I didn't worry you too much with that unexpected hiatus. I wasn't planning on this break to end up being so long, or even for me to take a break at all! I have an excuse for my absence, but it's not a very good one, so I'll give you an apology instead. I'm sorry! I anticipate that these chapters will start to come out a little bit more regularly soon enough.

ANYWAY, I hope you enjoyed this little chapter. As usual, please let me know what you think!


	8. Chapter 7

**o**

**DARKSTALKER**

At first, learning the truth took a heavy toll on him.

It hurt him in two different ways. On the one talon, it pained him to know that he'd changed that quickly, and for the worse. The dragon that Clearsight had described to him — who was so cruel to his friends, and so manipulative to his soulmate — sounded so alien. And to swallow the fact that in an alternate reality, he personally really did turn into that dragon … it was painful.

And on the other talon, it pained him to learn about what had happened to him that caused him to become so bitter. The loss of his mother … Darkstalker never even _considered_ the possibility of her leaving his life like that. He always imagined that she would always be there, nurturing him and guiding him and making him feel loved when Arctic tried to tear him down. If his mother ever left him, Darkstalker didn't know what he'd do.

Apparently he'd turn into a resentful, spiteful maniac. And what scared him was that he honestly couldn't blame himself for that.

But the weeks passed and the sting of the truth faded. The happenings of his current reality crowded his mind and he began to slip back into the routine of his normal self. And although it was evident that Clearsight's experiences had left her shaken and paranoid at times, Darkstalker was surprised to find that she wasn't that much different from her old self. She already saw potential futures swimming in her head all the time, and having the memories of the timeline she'd lived in before wasn't that much different from seeing that timeline in a thread of clairvoyance.

Plus, every day that passed brought them further from that terrible reality. According to Clearsight, Darkstalker had already made so many different choices that she couldn't see any trace of similarities between the world she'd experienced and the futures that lay ahead.

"Not all of the bad futures have disappeared," Clearsight said, beating her wings through the starlit sky. "I still see a lot of angry, tyrannical King Darkstalkers. But the darkest worlds seem to have disappeared."

Darkstalker hummed in thought as he glided beside her. That was the one lingering negative consequence of Clearsight's past experiences. Whenever she mentioned the futures where he became king, they were always the bad futures. It was as if in her mind, it was impossible for Darkstalker to rule benevolently and with tempered authority that brought peace and prosperity to the world. Even though _he_ could see the futures where he was a good king, Clearsight refused to pay any attention to them.

He couldn't blame her. Anybody would be paranoid after beholding the dragon they love puppeting his father into a self-disembowelment and reigning terror upon the entire IceWing tribe. Her skepticism was healthy.

But it also got in his way. After knowing what he was capable of becoming, Darkstalker promised himself that he would tell Clearsight about his honest intentions to take the NightWing throne before acting on those intentions. But it was hard to find a possible world where his honesty didn't lead to an incredibly uncomfortable and heated argument.

The two of them landed on the rooftop of the school's biology wing. Darkstalker briefly kept his wings extended for balance as he found his footing on the sloped clay shingles. His shadows criss-crossed in the light of the moons, which were brighter than normal on this cloudless night.

The scavengers were in the rooms below, probably sleeping. Even though the NightWings had school during the night and kept the scavengers up while class was in session, they seemed to be naturally diurnal, catching sleep whenever they could during the night hours.

"She should be here already," Darkstalker whispered to Clearsight. "She did say to meet us right here, didn't she?"

"This was the place and time we agreed on," Clearsight whispered back. "She ought to show up soon."

"Could you use your powers to make sure?" Darkstalker asked, taking a step forward and scanning the area for a sign of Listener. "I'm missing a very important party at the palace for this. Queen Vigilance is going to be angry with me for the next month."

He felt Clearsight brush her wing against his. "You don't have to be here," she said. "Fathom and Indigo are waiting to meet you at that party. You should be there instead."

"Fathom and Indigo can hold off one more day until meeting me," he said. "I want to do this with you." He grinned impishly at her. "Besides, I have a little surprise planned for Listener."

"What sort of surprise?" Listener asked.

Darkstalker straightened up and spun his head around, nearly losing his balance and falling off of the roof. Listener was standing behind him with a knowing smile. She had three empty burlap sacks draped over her back, which were all easily large enough to contain three or four adult scavengers. "Listener," Darkstalker said once he'd steadied himself again. "You really live up to your namesake, don't you?"

Listener let out a lively giggle. "C'mon, Darkstalker, I don't like surprises. Tell me what it is."

"That's a bald-faced lie and you know it," Darkstalker said with an amused grin. "If you didn't like surprises, you would let Clearsight tell you your future. Besides, this is a surprise you definitely _are_ going to like. Now give me one of those sacks and let's quiet down."

Listener handed one sack each to Clearsight and Darkstalker and jumped off the roof, landing in the courtyard. She landed as quiet as a cat in the shadows. Darkstalker leapt down beside her, examining the stars twinkling through the sky. "I thought you said that there were supposed to be three crescent moons tonight," Darkstalker said, eyeing the massive full moon illuminating the eastern sky and its gibbous brethren to the west.

"Hey, it's not _my_ fault the chart I looked at was for the moon phases of _last_ year!" Listener shot back. "But you know what? It's probably better this way. The scavengers will be able to see better on a bright night like this. Besides, we're running out of time. If we wait any longer, it'll get too cold for them. Apparently scavengers need to wear extra animal fur in the winter to keep themselves warm."

"Alright, as long as we drop them off somewhere where we know they won't get eaten," Darkstalker said, trying not to imagine watching a crowd of scavengers getting picked apart by NightWing hunters. "Did you find out where they were when they got captured?"

"Not exactly," Listener said. She slipped into one of the hallways and quietly inched her way into the animal lab. Without any lanterns to illuminate the stone walls and marble flooring, the inside of the school reminded Darkstalker of a menacing cave. The moonlight was snuffed out, leaving the corridors almost pitch black. "The teachers told me that they just found them in the wild. But they believe there's a scavenger den to the northeast of here, not too far from the mountains."

"I guess that's where we'll go, then," Darkstalker mused. Quietly, he opened the door to the lab and let the others in.

"This'll go faster if we split up," Listener whispered. "Darkstalker, you go to your classroom and pick up the scavenger being kept there. Then go find the scavenger that they brought in to entertain the first-years and take her as well. Clearsight, you can go to our old third-year classroom and gather the scavengers being kept there. The ones here in the science lab are mine."

"What if any of us need help?" Clearsight asked, fidgeting slightly with her sack. "What if the scavengers wake up and try running away, and we need help catching them?"

Listener's mind skittered for a few moments trying to come up with a possible solution. "Think really loudly for one of us?" she suggested. "Darkstalker and I are both mind readers."

"My bracelet is enchanted to keep mind readers from hearing my thoughts," Clearsight explained, lifting her wrist with the moonstone bracelet.

"Then … take it off?" Listener said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Honestly, I sometimes wonder why you feel the need to wear it all the time anyway. Between you and me, the other mind-readers think it makes you look really suspicious."

"Clearsight is the most powerful seer in the world," Darkstalker spoke in her defense. "Some of her visions are best kept a secret."

Clearsight gave him a bright, thankful smile after he said that, and he smiled back at her. _See? Not evil. Never gonna be evil again._

Listener groaned. "Okay, fine, but you can still take it off when you need to signal one of us. _If_ you need to signal one of us. I'd prefer it if you didn't. Now let's get moving."

Darkstalker separated from the girls and walked down another hall to his classroom. It was eerie being here when it was so quiet and empty. There were usually teachers and students moving back and forth along the corridors, talking with friends and co-workers about the latest stupid scandal. Now all Darkstalker heard was the echo of his talon clicks.

He snuck into his classroom and quietly wove himself around the tables and floor cushions to the scavenger cage in the corner. The male inside was sleeping, with a fur blanket wrapped around his body, but that didn't come as any surprise. He spent a lot of time sleeping; much more than the others.

Darkstalker thought at first that maybe the scavenger was ill, but he later realized that it was something else. When he tried to read the scavenger's thoughts, he found that there simply wasn't the motivation in his will to do anything. He could never summon any joy or relief or hope in his heart, so he resigned himself to a miserable life where he slept sixteen hours a day and wallowed the remaining eight.

Darkstalker opened the cage and gently scooped up the caged critter. Like most animals, scavengers had a startle reflex — which triggered when Darkstalker picked him up. He woke with a gasp, and covered his face with his arms, but a few seconds later the scavenger slumped down, perfectly ready to get eaten so that his life would be over and done with.

When Clearsight had first told Darkstalker of Listener's plan to free the scavengers, he thought that it was noble but a little bit obsessive. He was always able to tell how sophisticated the minds of these creatures were, but in the grand scheme of things, he felt that there were too many injustices in the world for him to care about something as insignificant as a few helpless creatures.

But once he decided to help Clearsight and Listener with this pet project of theirs, he started to understand Listener's obsession a little bit more. When this depressed and broken little hominid had joined the classroom, Darkstalker had to turn off his mind-reading abilities to keep his sympathy from distracting him the entire day. From that point on, he looked forward to the day when he would free the scavengers from their prison.

He put the scavenger down in the sack and slid quietly out of his classroom and into the hallway leading to the first-year classes. As he did so, the sound of rattling metal and high-pitched squeaking rang out from the animal lab. _Listener,_ he thought, openly projecting his thoughts so that she could hear them if she were listening. _Do you need an extra set of talons?_

_**Oh, hi Darkstalker!**_ Listener thought back. _**No, I think I'm good. I just need to—GAH!**_ Darkstalker felt his own adrenaline rush from how startled she suddenly became. _**Okay, on second thought, YES, PLEASE HELP ME NOW!**_

Darkstalker held the end of his sack in his mouth and galloped back to the science lab, where by now all the animals had awoken and were making a choir of rambunctious caws and hollers. He trotted around a cage of screaming cockatiels and found Listener crouching on the floor with her head in a cabinet of titration flasks. Darkstalker cleared his throat to let her know he was there now.

Listener looked back for just a second before burying her head back into the cabinet space. "The darn thing slipped out of my talons while I was busy capturing the other one," she grumbled. "It's hiding in the cabinet. I'm afraid it might find the air vent and make a run for it."

Darkstalker brought his own scavenger sack back into his talons. "Where's the other one?"

"I got it in the sack, over there." She flicked her tail in one direction, where a wriggling burlap sack lay on the floor. When Darkstalker looked more closely at it, he saw an arm snaking out of the top and tugging at the string binding it shut from the outside.

"Can you help me find this one?" Listener asked. "It's being _extremely_ difficult right now. Just grab it if it runs out of here while I clear away these flasks."

"You sure you don't want to deal with your other scavenger instead?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Listener asked, craning her head back out to look at her sack. "I've already tied it — _hey, stay in there! I'm trying to rescue you, you ungrateful monkey!_"

Listener ran back to her sack and grabbed onto the scavenger, who at that point had just slipped out of the sack and started running for another hiding place. At the same time, the one who had been hiding jumped out of the cabinet and bolted towards the air vent in the corner of the room, just as Listener had feared.

Darkstalker ran after the scavenger and picked him up just a heartbeat before he could slip into the vent. Darkstalker tried to keep his grasp gentle so he didn't hurt the little critter, but the scavenger screamed and flailed wildly in his talons, and after just a couple seconds he slipped away and fell to the ground. He landed awkwardly on one of his legs and squeaked before collapsing. "Well, what did you _think_ was going to happen?!" Darkstalker scolded with a sneer.

"Huh?" Listener said, preoccupied with her own scavenger.

"This one fell and hurt his leg," Darkstalker said, scowling disappointedly as the scavenger stood back up and ran for the vent again with a slight limp. He reached forward and grabbed his torso and held him more tightly this time.

"Oh no. Is he okay?"

"He still seems perfectly capable of moving around, so I'd guess so." The scavenger in his talons was still thrashing, but was clearly running out of energy. He started squirming less and squeaking more. "Will you quiet down?! If we planned on eating you you would have been dead a long time ago."

Listener lifted her head and gripped her sack tightly. "Someone's coming," she said. "Can you hear them?"

Darkstalker cocked his head and listened for any thoughts. And he did hear someone. There was a teacher on the other side of the school who'd been alarmed by all the noise and was coming their way. "Shoot," he hissed. "Here, take this scavenger and go find Clearsight. See if she needs help with her scavengers too. I still need to go to the first-year classroom and grab the one from there."

"Okay. We'll wait for you at the arboretum," Listener said. She took the scavenger in her talons and stuffed it in her sack with the other scavenger, then galloped out of the lab. Darkstalker found his own sack and picked it up. His scavenger had made no effort whatsoever to escape the entire time, and was limp as a ragdoll. For all Darkstalker knew, he might have fallen asleep again.

He darted to the last classroom, his heart pounding. Judging by the thoughts he was hearing, the teacher had just walked into the science lab and was growing increasingly furious. It would only be a few more seconds before she noticed that the scavengers were missing and started heading his way. He needed to move fast.

Darkstalker slithered to the cage and opened the latch. The lone female scavenger inside had already woken up, and was looking at him with bright, curious eyes. Much to Darkstalker's relief, she didn't try to run away or put up a fight, and let herself get picked up and handled without any fuss. _Perhaps she has some sense in her and realizes that she's actually being freed,_ Darkstalker realized.

If so, it was a massive stroke of luck, because Darkstalker could hear the teacher coming his way. Capitalizing on his stroke of fortune, he ran into the hallway, holding his breath as he made his way to the exit.

The arboretum was on the eastern side of the school, but the closest way out was on the western wing. Thinking quickly, he chose to go west. His instincts were flaring, and he got the impression that if he didn't leave _right now_, then he would definitely be seen. He bolted out of the doors leading to the woods and took to the sky, letting his wings turn him invisible as he flew away from the school.

Once he'd gained enough altitude, he angled his wings and turned around, flying for the arboretum. After transporting the sack to his mouth so that he could use all four of his legs to land, he touched down quietly on the top of a conifer slightly to the east of where his friends should have been. He carefully climbed down, and stumbled onto the ground.

The forest cast a hundred shadows from the light of the two moons and katydids and crickets chittered in every direction, making navigation a little disorienting. But it only took another minute of searching before the colorful leaves of dragon-planted maples and cherry trees began to surround him.

Clearsight and Listener were on the northern end of the garden. They sounded like they were bickering. When Clearsight spotted him, she cut Listener off and waved him over, looking relieved.

"Ha, see?" Listener snapped at Clearsight as he approached. "I _told_ you he'd make it."

"You have _no idea_ how close that was," Clearsight whispered to Darkstalker. "You got caught in practically every timeline I saw. I was ready to leave you behind."

"Which would have been a _terrible_ thing to do," Listener reproached. "We came here to save _all_ of the scavengers, not _some_ of them."

"Well, would you rather we waited to get caught too? Because that's what would have happened if that teacher spotted Darkstalker."

"The teacher wasn't going to spot me," Darkstalker said bemusedly. "I was tracking her thoughts the entire time. I had enough distance on her and I knew where I was going. I had plenty of time to get out of the school."

Clearsight shook her head. "You got extremely lucky. I was certain you weren't going to make it out."

"And _that_ is exactly why I don't like hearing about your stupid future mumbo jumbo," Listener said. "It takes away your ability to have faith." She brushed her wing against Darkstalker's, smiling encouragingly at him. "I knew you were going to make it. Even though _someone_ was convinced otherwise."

Darkstalker didn't say anything, but he gave a thankful smile in return.

"Um, by the way—" Clearsight interrupted, standing between the two of them and looking adorably angry, "we still need to get out of here. Don't forget there's a teacher on our tails."

"Of course," Darkstalker said. "Clearsight, you managed to save both of the scavengers from your classroom, right?"

Clearsight lifted her sack and nodded. "All of them have been rescued. We just need to bring them home."

"We still have a long night ahead of us," Listener said. "But at least the risky part's over. Let's fly."

Listener took a running start and took to the sky. Clearsight and Darkstalker followed, swerving over the tree branches and flying into the stars. Soon they were safely flying through the sky, and they fled from the school with only the hoot of a distant great horned owl to mark their departure.

Darkstalker breathed a heavy sigh of relief as he glided through the sky. He felt good. The rush of adventure, the swell of righteousness that was blooming in his heart, the warmth of the autumn air whizzing through his scales, the sense of companionship by being with Listener and Clearsight — it all made him feel like the world was becoming a better place, and it was partly thanks to him. And this was just the beginning. More adventures were on the horizon, he knew. Bigger, grander adventures that would span months and years — adventures that he would be able to share with more than just Clearsight and Listener, but with Fathom and Whiteout and the rest of the world.

He took up the rear of Listener's right wing, catching its updraft so he had an easier time flying. Clearsight did the same on her left side, and they flew through the stars in a little V-formation.

Listener had impressed Darkstalker these past several weeks with how enjoyable her company was. She wasn't the brightest thinker, but she had a sense of ambition that drove her to act on the good ideas she had. It was a refreshing change of pace to Clearsight, whose abilities must have given her a million good ideas every day, but also enough anxiety to never go through with any of them.

Apparently in the previous timeline that Clearsight had travelled, Darkstalker never really got to know Listener. Before meeting Fathom, Darkstalker's friendships were restricted to Clearsight and Whiteout. The two of them were more than enough to keep Darkstalker company, he was sure, but it was nice to have another dragon to hang out with too — one that had a spirit of adventure that was as high as his own.

Clearsight had admitted that she wasn't sure how she felt about this change from the previous timeline. On the one talon, she thought it was good that the two of them were getting along and enjoying each other's company. But on the other talon, she _was_ getting a little jealous — something which Darkstalker found highly amusing.

"Why on earth would you get jealous?" he'd asked her. "I think we both know that our souls are bound from now until the end of time."

"Yes, I know that," Clearsight responded. "Trust me, if I saw a future where you cheated on me with her, I would have stuffed her in a barrel and chucked her across the ocean a long time ago. It's probably just me being immature. I am only five, after all."

"Four," Darkstalker corrected.

"Right, right. Sorry, I keep forgetting."

Darkstalker hummed, taking a few seconds to try sympathizing with her. "Do you want me to try spending less time with Listener? I wouldn't want to steal your friendship from you."

"No, of course not! I will get over this; just give me some time."

It appeared that she still hadn't quite gotten over it yet. Even back at the arboretum, Darkstalker thought he could sense a bit of envy radiating from her. It made him feel a little guilty whenever he looked forward to seeing Listener again, but she was too valuable and too interesting of a friend. Her intensity and starry-eyed bravado made every hour they spent together energizing and fun.

They flew for nearly an hour, distancing themselves far from the school. Eventually, Listener adjusted her wings and dipped down below the clouds, flying low enough to see the dim, colorful dots on the ground that marked blooming wildflowers popping over the grass. She looked over her shoulder and said, "We're pretty close now. Keep an eye out for a scavenger den."

"Do you know where we're going?" Clearsight asked.

"Not anymore. Like I said, all I know is that the teachers think there might be something near the mountains. And those are the mountains over there."

When Darkstalker looked up ahead, the Agate and Jade Mountain stood high beside the southern Claws of the Clouds, with a sea of evergreens spread out in front of it. There could be a hundred scavenger dens hiding anywhere under the trees.

"What should we be looking for?" Darkstalker asked. "What do scavenger dens look like?"

"We should check the clearings first," Listener said. "In the wild, they cut down trees and use the wood and animal hide to build tents."

"Aww, that's adorable!" Clearsight said, beaming down at the sack she was holding. "They make their own little huts!"

"They're very resourceful," Listener agreed. "Which will hopefully make it easier for us to find a settlement."

They swooped low and started to investigate a small, grassy glade. They hovered just over the treetops, close enough to the ground for them to be able to see the petals of wild daffodils. After just a few seconds, they concluded that nothing was there, neither beneath the surrounding trees nor within the clearing, so they rose back up into the air to find another area to search.

As Darkstalker adjusted his wings to catch a current of air, the moonlight shifted a little in his vision. He looked over, thinking at first that it was just a nearby cloud hovering in the way, but found that it was actually a stack of gray smoke lifting off from the ground. He hissed under his breath. "We should avoid that area up north," he said. "It looks like there's a hunting party that's cooking over there."

"What do you mean?" Listener said, panning her head from northeast to northwest in an effort to find what Darkstalker was referring to.

"I think I see smoke from a campfire," he said. "In the direction of the gibbous moon on your right."

"Really? Let's check it out! You lead the way." Listener sank back, drifting below Darkstalker so he could pull up ahead.

"Why?" Darkstalker asked. "Aren't we trying to keep these scavengers _away_ from danger?"

"Scavengers know how to use fire too," Listener explained. "The smoke you saw might be coming from a scavenger den."

Darkstalker hummed contemplatively. He tried to use his future sight powers to see if Listener was right, but he was too tired from the flying and the rescuing. It would only be a few more hours before dawn would steal the blackness from the sky. He was ready to get this mission over and done with.

Accepting Listener's suggestion, he altered his course slightly and flew towards the moon, where he'd spotted the smoke. At first it took him a little while to catch sight of it again, but once he'd lined it up with the moonlight it was a straight and easy path to it.

As they got closer, the orange twinkle of a bonfire began to take form at the top of a cliffside. It was hard to spot any dragons surrounding it, but when Darkstalker strained his night vision, he thought he was able to see a couple of huts made of thatch and wood.

"Ha! I was right," Listener cheered. "That's a scavenger den for sure. It looks like this might be a pretty big one too. I can see more huts in the woods behind the fire."

_Perfect,_ Darkstalker thought, grinning shrewdly. For a split second, he was afraid that he'd forgotten his satchel and left it at home. But when he brought one talon over to feel for it, he found that it was there, sitting snugly against his chest, with the gift he'd made still resting safely inside of it.

"Do you think they'll try to attack us once we get closer?" Clearsight asked.

"I don't think so," Listener said. "Scavengers are nocturnal, and they won't be able to see us until we land. They're also smart enough to know to run away from dragons rather than try and fight us."

They landed about ten feet away from the campfire, just on the edge of the cliff that it overlooked. Clearsight set her sack of scavengers down on the ground and untied the knot that had been closing it up. A few seconds passed where nothing happened. Listener looked down at the bag worryingly.

"You didn't accidentally kill them, did you?" she asked Clearsight.

"What? Of course not!"

"Are you sure? They're fragile creatures, Clearsight. They—"

Suddenly, the two scavengers bolted out of the sack, squeaking loudly. Then they each picked up a couple of rocks that were lying on the ground and started throwing them at Listener.

Listener flinched after one of the rocks hit her in the snout. "Ow! Stop attacking me, you idiots! We just _rescued_ you!" Promptly, she set her own sack down and opened it up, letting the scavengers she'd captured out. The other scavengers continued to assault her with pebbles, but she just tried to ignore them. A couple of seconds later, the two of them emerged from her sack. The male was limping much more intensely now, hardly using one of his legs, while the female supported his weight and helped him run faster.

Darkstalker untied his own sack as well. Almost instantly, the female ran out, but she stopped and turned around when she realized that the other scavenger wasn't following along. Darkstalker felt a little bit of empathy and frustration coming from her as she slipped her body back into the sack and ferreted around for the other guy. Soon, she was backing out, squeaking irately as she pulled on her friend's arm to beckon him out.

By now there were others from the village filing out of their huts. Some were scrambling from one direction to another as if they'd been set on fire. Others picked up rocks and started throwing them at Darkstalker, who had to resist the urge to laugh at them for their efforts. One scavenger was holding onto a curved stick, crouching slightly. He pulled on what looked like a piece of twine that was tied to the stick which caused the wood to bend, then let go. A wooden projectile launched out of it at an alarmingly high speed, and hit Darkstalker's chest, sinking into his scales.

"Aaaaaaargh!" Darkstalker roared, wincing in pain. "That _really hurt_, you little furball!" The scavenger released another projectile, this one just barely whizzing past his head. "Stop that! You're gonna poke my eye out!"

The female scavenger that he'd freed turned around and lifted her arms in the air, her palms facing the villagers. She ran over to the guy shooting the arrows and they began squeaking at each other. As Clearsight trotted over to look at the place where Darkstalker had gotten lightly impaled, a male scavenger with long, dark brown hair approached the two bickering ones. The female turned around to meet him, and a heartbeat later, they held each other in a tight embrace.

"Awwww, look!" Listener squeed, pointing at them. "They know each other! They're hugging because they remember each other! Ahh, it's so cute, I'm going to die!"

Clearsight grabbed onto the arrow stuck in Darkstalker's chest and pulled it out. Darkstalker cringed, but the mark it left was clearly nothing serious. The projectile was far too tiny to do any actual damage. "They can make weapons too," Clearsight mused, studying the arrow and the wound it caused. "They really are smarter than I thought."

All of the scavengers had stopped attacking them now. Most of them were just watching, staring cautiously and quietly at the three NightWings before them.

"Hey, why did they stop freaking out at us?" Listener asked, noticing the same thing.

"They noticed that we're not hurting them," Darkstalker said. "And that we just gave them a group of unharmed scavengers."

Listener gasped, her eyes glistening. "Does that mean that they're starting to trust us?"

"I don't think so," Darkstalker answered. "I think they're just waiting to see what we want." Calmly, he reached over and opened up the satchel hanging over his shoulder. Many of the scavengers squeaked at his movements, backing away startled. Darkstalker ignored them.

He reached in and pulled out a tiny golden goblet, far too small for any dragon to use. He then leaned forward and set the goblet down in front of the scavenger villagers, who began to scurry back once again.

"What are you doing?! Don't hurt them!" Listener hissed.

"I'm not," Darkstalker said. "I'm giving them a gift." Once he'd set the goblet down, he brought his talons back, and sat upright once again to wait for the scavengers' reaction.

To his side, Listener cocked her head at him. "What's that?"

"It's a golden cup — a small piece of treasure. Consider it a peace offering."

"Oh! That's sweet of you," Listener said. "Scavengers like collecting precious treasure just like we do, so they'll probably — wait, it's enchanted, isn't it?"

"It is," Darkstalker said as he watched the scavengers study the goblet carefully. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that Clearsight gave him a suspicious glare. "But it's completely harmless to them. You'll like the enchantment, Listener, I promise."

"What is it?" Listener asked.

"I'd rather show you than tell you," Darkstalker said, grinning. "Remember the surprise I had planned for you? It involves this."

"Oh! So the enchantment is for me?" Listener started to bounce up and down excitedly. "Show me! Show me!"

"I will," Darkstalker said. "But first, I think it's about time we flew home."

"What? Wait, but—"

"I can show you what it does when we're back in the Great Diamond," Darkstalker explained. "I think our welcome has been overstayed, and it's starting to get late."

The scavengers now dared to pick up the goblet. They surrounded it, passing it around from person to person, staring quizzically at it. In the meantime, Darkstalker backed up and began to spread his wings. The scavengers gave him one last glance as he lifted himself in the air before they scurried back into the forest. As he turned around and took to the sky, Clearsight and Listener followed up behind him.

"Let's go back to my house," Darkstalker told them, feeling warm from the afterglow of a successful mission.

"Darkstalker, how come I don't know about this enchantment?" Clearsight asked him, pulling up to his right. "You haven't been hiding any spells from me, have you?"

"What? Of course not," Darkstalker answered. "It was just yesterday that I made the spell, so you wouldn't have seen it. I didn't want you to spoil the fun for Listener. If you're worried, you can look to the future and find out what I did that way."

"You don't mind?" Clearsight asked.

Darkstalker shook his head. "Not for this spell."

Clearsight faced forward, then closed her eyes and began gliding. A few seconds later, she went, "Ooooh," before opening her eyes and grinning shrewdly at him.

"It's clever, isn't it?" Darkstalker asked, his face lifting with pride.

"Actually, your enchantment might have to wait until later." Clearsight beat her wings so that she was by Darkstalker's side. "Fathom's going to be waiting for us."

* * *

**A/N: **Brighter Paths now has official cover art! The piece was drawn by the amazing **Biohazardia**, whom you can find on deviantART. You should TOTALLY give her a watch if you aren't following her already, because her artwork is some of the best in the fandom.

The next chapter will probably be shorter than this one, however I have one or two other short stories for Wings of Fire that I want to write first, so if you're currently waiting for chapter 8, it may take just a touch longer than normal to get it out. I hope I don't keep you waiting for too long!


	9. Chapter 8

**o**

**FATHOM**

The party was a nightmare.

Fathom's mind was nothing but a continuous stream of alarm bells.

_This is just like the party at the Island Palace._

_What would those musicians do if Darkstalker attacks? They have nowhere to run!_

_Why are they serving hors d'oeuvres on those wooden skewers? They could impale someone!_

_There aren't enough escape routes._

_Those windows aren't big enough for a dragon to fly through._

_Why are those hallways so narrow?_

_Why is this ballroom so big and open?_

_It's too crowded. He could kill so many of them._

_Where is he?_

_WHERE IS HE?!_

When he saw a cheese knife sitting atop a wheel of brie, he covered his mouth and shrieked, before grabbing it and throwing it in the nearest trash bin, covering it up with napkins from the table.

"Fathom, what are you doing?" Indigo hissed beside him as she glanced around suspiciously.

"There was a _knife_," he whispered back. "Just _sitting_ there, right on that wheel of cheese."

Indigo tilted her head over at the wheel that he'd indicated. "Great. So now they don't have a way of spreading cheese on their crackers."

"These dragons have _no_ idea how much danger they're in," Fathom said, pacing back and forth nervously, trying to find other ways he could make this place safer. "What were they thinking?"

"_Fathom,_" Indigo said pressingly. She lifted her talons and grabbed Fathom's head, forcing him to look at her. "Get a grip. This is our first day here. You can't spend this entire party freaking out at everything that's — _get down!_"

In an instant, her eyes went wide and she leaped onto Fathom, draping him with her wings and pushing him to the floor. She craned her head around and reached for the concealed dagger that she had in a sheath under her wing.

"What is it?" Fathom whispered — although he wasn't sure if Indigo was able to hear him over the conversing NightWings all around them.

Indigo was motionless, staring at a high glass window. She studied it for many seconds, not answering Fathom. He could see from the rising and falling of her chest that she was breathing quickly.

But then she relaxed a little, and folded her wings in again. "Nevermind," she said, extending a talon to help Fathom back up. "I thought I saw someone coming in from the window, but it was just in my head."

"You're nervous too," he said, taking her talon and pulling himself up. "Just as nervous as I am."

"I _shouldn't_ be," Indigo said. "My eyes have been playing tricks on me. It's all these mirrors and candles and black pillars. They're making me see things that aren't there." She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "I'm so tired too."

"Fathom, Indigo, my honored guests," a familiar sounding voice suddenly spoke. Fathom looked behind him and saw the queen, frowning down at him. She had two dragons at her flank — a slender female NightWing with pearly white earrings, and a scowling male IceWing with onyx black earrings. _Those must be Darkstalker's parents,_ he realized.

Queen Vigilance cleared her throat to force Fathom's attention back to her. "Why are you acting so strangely, young prince?" she asked him. "You have yet to mingle with any of the invited guests. Instead it appears you've been playing a little game with my servants called 'find out where I hid all the silverware.' "

"Queen Vigilance," Fathom responded, bowing. "I'm sorry to bother you with this again, but can you please explain to me why Darkstalker isn't here?"

"He rejected my invitation, Prince Fathom," Queen Vigilance said for the third time that day. "It's as simple as that."

"But — _how?_" Fathom asked, pinning his ears. "Can't you _make_ him show up? Can't you _order_ him to? You're the queen."

"I don't force my subjects to join me for parties against their will, Prince Fathom," Vigilance answered boredly. "But you can rest assured that I'm quite upset with him for not showing up. Since you seem so disappointed by his absence, then I can arrange a punishment for him."

Darkstalker's parents glanced disapprovingly at each other.

"Uh — that won't be necessary," Fathom quickly said. "But it would have been really, um … convenient if you insisted on having him show up."

"I made the importance of his attendance very clear when I invited him," Vigilance said. "But he said that he had more important private affairs to attend to. Apparently, he had a little project scheduled for tonight that he'd been planning for a few months in advance."

Fathom's blood ran cold. "_What project?_" he pressed, completely failing to hide his overwhelming nervousness judging by the look on Queen Vigilance's face.

"Three moons, Prince Fathom! Calm down. Get a drink of water, take some deep breaths." She found a nearby servant and motioned him to get something for the anxious prince.

"Just answer the question!" Fathom hissed.

Vigilance narrowed her eyes. "Is that the sort of tone of voice that SeaWings are taught to speak with when addressing a queen?" she asked coldly.

"Please forgive the Prince, Your Majesty," Indigo interjected. "We are both extremely grateful that you put on this gala for us, but it's unfortunately invoking some rather unpleasant memories. The last time we attended something like this, our families got slaughtered before our eyes. I hope you understand that Prince Fathom's nerves are slightly on edge, especially in the absence of the animus we were meant to meet."

Vigilance hummed and thought for an uncomfortably long time. In the duration of her silence, a NightWing server had approached Prince Fathom with a bowl of water, handed it to him, and left without a word. It was only after Fathom had started drinking that Vigilance decided to speak again. "Very well. I will forgive this infraction. May the good Prince please repeat his inquiry in a more cordial and respectful manner?"

"O-of course, Your Majesty," Fathom said, bowing low. "What is this project that Darkstalker is currently working on?"

"I don't know," Vigilance said dismissively.

Fathom whimpered.

"In fact, I don't even know where he is right now."

Fathom whimpered a little louder.

"Take another drink, Prince Fathom; you look like you're going to be sick."

Fathom reluctantly obeyed, taking another sip. He did feel a little calmer afterwards, but there were still butterflies flitting all over his stomach. "You really need to keep a closer eye on him, Your Majesty," Fathom said pleadingly. "You don't know how dangerous he might become — how dangerous he might become to _you_."

Vigilance paused thoughtfully again, but this time her silence was less deafeningly long. "You might be right," she said. "I should arrange for further measures to be taken to ensure that a more watchful eye is kept on him."

For the first time that night, Fathom felt something that resembled relief.

"As an animus, he really shouldn't be doing things that I don't know about," she continued to muse. "Who knows how much trouble he and that girlfriend of his could be getting into without me knowing?"

"Excuse me, Your Majesty," Darkstalker's mother interjected, looking just a little bit irate. "But the night is starting to wane, and I'm sure it's getting late for our SeaWing guests."

"Ah yes, you're right," Vigilance said, nodding. "Fathom, Indigo, you may be escorted to the chambers we'd prepared for you whenever you feel ready to retire. Simply call on any of the servants and they'd be happy to take you there."

"Actually, I would like to invite Prince Fathom to my home before he rests for the night." She looked at Fathom and bowed her head. "I am Foeslayer and this is my husband, Arctic."

"_Prince_ Arctic," the IceWing corrected.

"We are Darkstalker's parents," Foeslayer went on in the same breath. "It's an honor to meet you."

"And what reason would you have to abduct our foreign guests like this?" Vigilance said, arching an eye at Foeslayer.

"Your Majesty, I would never dream of 'abducting' any of them." She raised her head, stiffening her posture, and Fathom suddenly found himself growing impatient with all these royal formalities. "It is a simple invitation. Darkstalker said that he would be returning home before morning. If Prince Fathom would like to meet him as soon as possible, then he should come with us and wait for him to come back."

"I would like that," Fathom responded, almost immediately. _Anything to get out of this nightmare._ "If Your Majesty wouldn't mind," he quickly added, bowing to the queen.

Queen Vigilance sighed impatiently. "Oh, go on. I grant you all leave. This party was going to end soon anyway. Just be sure to return through the front gates. I'll be sure to assign door guards who will recognize you."

Fathom bowed one last time, and followed Foeslayer and Arctic as they guided him out of the palace. Indigo went off to fetch Wharf and Lionfish for a moment, but slipped right back to Fathom's side once she'd returned with them trailing behind her. He was amazed by how much calmer he felt when she was next to him.

They turned a corner and began to walk down a long corridor with high glass windows on either side that showed the moonlit landscape of the evergreen forest within which the palace was buried. Soon, the noise of the party began to fade into distant echoes, and Fathom could feel another layer of his anxieties peeling away from his soul. "Thank you, Mrs. Foeslayer," he said to them in a small voice.

Foeslayer glanced back at Fathom, but didn't respond. It was hard to tell the look on her face in the darkness of the palace. Fathom had good night vision like every other SeaWing, but Foeslayer's scales were darker than the shadows of the high ceiling. All he could tell was that she wasn't smiling.

Indigo decided to speak up. "Do you know what your son is doing right now, Mrs. Foeslayer?"

"He told me that he was going to be spending the night with his friends, Clearsight and Listener," she answered. "He didn't tell me what they were doing, but I think I have a pretty good idea."

"What is it?" Indigo and Fathom asked simultaneously.

"I shouldn't tell you," Foeslayer said, and _now_ she was definitely smiling. "I'd be quite a bad mother if I revealed a secret of his that I'm not supposed to know."

Fathom looked hesitantly over at Indigo, and she looked hesitantly back at him. He murmured something in Aquatic that roughly translated to, _I don't like this._ And she responded with something that translated to, _Neither do I. She can't be trusted._

"Does it involve any animus magic?" Fathom asked Darkstalker's mom.

"Not that I'm aware of," she answered. "He knows how to use his powers carefully, Fathom. He's very thoughtful with the enchantments he makes, and I'm keeping a very close eye on his soul."

"Those enchantments can add up, Foeslayer," Fathom said, sounding urgent. "I know he may seem fine now, but my grandfather seemed fine right up until he killed all those dragons."

Foeslayer looked back at them. "I know," she said hesitantly. "I worry about him too, Fathom. But his soul is in better talons than your grandfather's was. You see, Darkstalker has the ability to see the future. And because he was hatched under three full moons, he is particularly talented at it. If there were a future where he turned evil, he would see it. And he would keep it from happening."

"Are you sure?" Fathom asked. "What if he slowly turns evil over time without realizing it?"

"Then he has Clearsight," she answered. "If what Darkstalker told me about her is true, her future-seeing abilities are even _more_ powerful than his. I've already spoken with her before. She appears to understand the responsibility she's accepting by being with my son. I don't need to be constantly breathing down his neck to make sure he doesn't step out of line, and neither do you." She folded her brow at them and frowned. "And neither does the queen."

Fathom winced, suddenly feeling a small pit in his stomach where the butterflies had once been. He couldn't think of any way to respond.

The corridor finally came to an end, and a pair of guards opened the doors to let them out. The air outside was warm and still, but Fathom was just happy to be breathing fresh air again. The palace had been stuffy from all of the candles burning against the walls.

"We don't live very far away," Foeslayer said to them. "Stay close to Arctic. He'll let you know when we're close, and you should be able to see him better once we start flying."

Once Foeslayer spread her wings and took to the sky, she completely vanished. Fathom wasn't even able to catch her silhouette in the sky.

"Hey," Arctic barked quietly to get their attention. He nudged his head upward, urging them to take flight. "Don't keep Foeslayer and me waiting."

"Sorry," Fathom said, before lifting up into the air.

Arctic was indeed a lot easier to spot. Once he started soaring ahead of him, Fathom was able to catch his wings and tail him without any problem. They glided over deep green coniferous forests and under a clear, cloudless sky with two shining moons overhead — one bright and full, another big and gibbous. Thousands of colorful stars dotted the rest of the sky, and a sea of crickets chirped below him.

Now that his nerves were dying down, Fathom began to grow more and more exhausted. He was starting to regret joining Foeslayer and Arctic. Perhaps his meeting with Darkstalker could have waited until he was more well-rested. A quick glance back at his SeaWing companions informed him that he wasn't alone. Indigo was gliding right behind his right wing, her eyelids only half-open. Wharf and Lionfish each had their heads dipped low, and they kept losing altitude on accident, periodically reflapping their wings to pick themselves back up.

_I need to see him,_ Fathom told himself. _I need to let him know how dangerous his magic is. I don't care how many seers he has with him. I don't care how safe he and his family thinks he is. He can't use his powers. He needs to stop using them._

That much he was sure of. And the sooner he could convince Darkstalker to give them up, the safer the world will be.

Arctic began to descend. Fathom snapped out of the half-conscious gliding state he was in and dipped down as well. They appeared to be falling into a ravine. At first it appeared dark and sinister, but as they grew closer to the walls, he saw windows with orange candle lights coming out of them. Small window boxes with flowers adorned many of them, especially those near the top. Deeper down, where less moonlight poured in, the gardens were instead replaced with decorative wreaths, each a different variety of colors.

Darkstalker's house was closer to the top, with the flower gardens. Arctic landed on a porch where a wide black door was already open, and made his way inside. Fathom quickly followed, and Indigo, Wharf, and Lionfish were right behind him.

"Would you like anything to drink?" Foeslayer asked. When Fathom looked up at her, he saw that she was already in the kitchen. "I could make some rich black tea for you if you need help staying awake."

"That would be wonderful," Fathom said, yawning. "Thank you very much."

"I'll take one too," Indigo added. She sat down beside the door, keeping an eye on Fathom as she tried to keep her eyes from permanently closing. She'd been carrying a whale tooth spear with her, which now lay idly by her side.

Fathom looked around. The main living room had a wool rug atop the floor with blue and white patterns between the weavings. In fact, he noticed there was a lot of that color combination in the room. The canvases were paintings of happy looking IceWings and NightWings and IceWing-NightWing hybrids, with blue backlit shadows and blue sky backdrops. It reminded Fathom of the ocean and the summer sky, with little clouds drifting overhead and pale white seagulls dive-bombing into the waves to catch unsuspecting fish.

He found a piece of paper lying nearby and picked it up. On it was a sketch of a NightWing that didn't look like any of the others in the other paintings. She was a little smaller, and had a different shape to her snout. She was walking forward, and unlike the NightWings in the other paintings, she looked determined and steadfast rather than cheerful and optimistic. Tied to her hind leg was what looked like a piece of string, which extended out beyond the edge of the piece of paper.

"I hope you'll excuse the mess," Foeslayer said. From the kitchen, she was overlooking a teapot that was sitting atop a small fire on the counter. "Those illustrations belong to Whiteout, Darkstalker's sister."

"Sister?" Fathom repeated. He looked over at her and said, "Does she have any special powers too?"

"No, she doesn't. NightWings get their powers when they hatch under full moons. The more full moons they hatch under, the more powers they have. Darkstalker hatched on the brightest night, but Whiteout didn't hatch until the next day, so she unfortunately doesn't have any powers of her own."

"I'm not so sure about that," Arctic said. He was seated on a small horde of bright blue and white throw pillows, frowning pensively at the drawing in Fathom's talons. "I think she has something. I'm not sure what it is, because none of what she says ever makes any sense. But sometimes I feel like she can see things that we can't."

"What do you mean 'None of what she says ever makes any sense'?" Fathom asked him.

"Father?" someone said from the hallway.

Fathom's jaw dropped a little when Whiteout came out from her room. She was unlike any dragon he'd ever seen. She was a wash of blue and black and white. Her wings and the spikes along her neck and back were snowy and white like an IceWing's, but the scales that painted the majority of her body were a dark ocean blue. She had piercing bright blue eyes and long, curving claws along her front talons. She looked like she was from a completely different planet.

"See for yourself," Arctic murmured.

"You made some new friends," Whiteout said to Arctic, her ears raised in curiosity.

"Close, but not quite," he answered. "These are SeaWing … ambassadors or something. They're here from all the way across the continent to meet your brother. Why don't you be polite and say hi to them?"

"Oh, I see!" Whiteout nodded, and beamed at Fathom. "My brother heard your whispers a long time ago. He's absolutely delighted by your existence."

"That's … good, I think," Fathom said. He looked over at Foeslayer, who was busy pouring the tea. She didn't appear to be at all confounded by her daughter's words. Looking back at Whiteout, he said, "Anyway, it's nice to meet you."

"Everything is mutual!" She trotted over to him and eagerly shook his talon. Her scales were chilly to the touch. "I hope my father hasn't given you any bitter apple seeds yet."

"I … don't think he has," Fathom said. _Am I just too tired to understand what she's saying?_

"Oh, my apologies!" Whiteout circled behind Fathom and began to gather up her paintings. "My silly pets leave a mess everywhere they go. They're supposed to stay in my room, but they never listen."

Fathom tilted his head, and looked back at the sketch of the NightWing with a thread tied to her. "Who are your pets?"

Whiteout giggled. "They don't really have names. They always come and go before I get the chance to give them one." She turned back around, her arms now full of half-painted canvases and empty paint tubes, before she stopped and looked at the sketch Fathom was holding. "Oh, except for that one. She _does_ have a name."

"What is it?" Fathom asked as Whiteout began to retreat back to her room.

"'Dragon of chaos.'"

Fathom blinked, then looked down at the drawing again. _Who is she?_ He felt a soft chill run down his spine, wondering if it were someone he'd meet, and if she were someone he had to be afraid of.

A cup rattled beside him. When Fathom looked over his shoulder, he saw Foeslayer looking at the drawing as well. A ceramic cup of tea was now next to him, sitting gently on the floor in a white saucer.

"That's Clearsight, I'm pretty sure," Foeslayer told him. "Whiteout has been drawing her a lot lately. I don't know why."

Fathom hummed, tapping the thread attached to the sketch's hind leg. "Maybe Whiteout thinks she's important," he suggested.

"She's very important to Darkstalker, that's for sure," Foeslayer said. "Perhaps she'll start drawing you next."

Fathom looked down at his teacup and took his first sip. He hoped he would be important. He hoped he could persuade Darkstalker to change.

Indigo suddenly leapt to her feet and faced the door, baring her teeth. A second later, the door swung open, and in paraded a young, glittering NightWing with a pair of silver teardrop scales on either side of his eyes. "Hello, mom!" he said jovially. "We're home, safe and sound."

_It's him,_ Fathom realized. All of the fear that had dissipated since he left the palace sprouted right back up. _Darkstalker._

"Welcome home, Darkstalker," Foeslayer said to him. "Do you remember the SeaWing prince that Queen Vigilance wanted you to meet tonight?"

"Yes, I do. Prince Fathom, right?" Darkstalker turned to face Fathom, and extended a talon for him to shake. "It's an honor to —"

A spear suddenly pointed itself at Darkstalker's throat. "_Don't touch him,_" Indigo warned, standing right beside Fathom and gripping her weapon tightly.

Fathom, Foeslayer, and Arctic all jumped to their feet at roughly the same time, though Foeslayer spoke up before Fathom could, sounding more furious than Fathom thought she was capable of being. "Get that thing away from my son right now!"

"Mother, it's alright," Darkstalker said slowly, raising his talons to surrender.

"_Actually_, it's not," Arctic said. "Dragons pointing spears at you is definitely _not_ something you should be alright with."

Another dragon walked in that Fathom immediately recognized: Clearsight.

She looked exactly how Whiteout sketched her. She was even wearing the same bracelet that she had on in the sketch. She watched Darkstalker carefully, as if she were studying him and Indigo. _That's weird,_ he thought._ Why doesn't she look worried?_

A third dragon walked in — someone Fathom didn't recognize at all. She looked about a year younger than Clearsight, and reacted expectantly when she saw Indigo and Darkstalker. She shrieked and turned around to fly away, and Clearsight quickly ran after her. "Listener, wait!"

_Because she already knows what's going to happen,_ Fathom realized. _She knows Darkstalker is going to be okay, because she can see the future._

_Is Indigo going to be okay, then? Would Clearsight care if he killed her?_

He didn't want to risk it. He wasn't going to let Indigo put herself in pointless danger for him. "Indigo, that's enough," Fathom said, trying to sound demanding. "Lower your weapon. I think Darkstalker just wanted to shake my talon."

"I did," Darkstalker agreed. "No harm meant. I promise!"

Indigo didn't lower her spear. "We can't trust him, Fathom! He's too dangerous. If we kill him now, then we can make sure he doesn't do anything bad."

"Indigo, just think for a second!" Fathom argued. "Isn't this what Queen Pearl wanted to do to me? We need to get through to him, not kill him. That was the whole point of me being here, wasn't it?"

"Also, I sincerely doubt Queen Pearl gave you permission to kill my son at your discretion," Arctic said, sounding much more imposing than Fathom ever could. "If you kill the only living NightWing animus, you and Prince Fathom will be at the mercy of Queen Vigilance. She won't make your deaths a pleasant experience."

Indigo looked back at Fathom for a moment, looking saturated with worry and sorrow and exhaustion. Then she sighed, and lowered her spear to the ground. Arctic promptly walked up to her and took the spear out of her grip. "Wait outside," he said sternly. "_Never_ step into this household again."

Indigo shook her head. "I am not to let Prince Fathom out of my sight," she told him.

Arctic bared his teeth. "Will I need to call the guards, then? I was hoping I wouldn't need to bring this to anyone else's attention."

"Arctic, let's not overreact," Darkstalker said calmly as he lowered his talons back to the ground. "These SeaWings are tired and have been put under a lot of stress. And they're _supposed_ to be my friends, are they not?"

"I'm starting to doubt that," Arctic said, scowling at Fathom and Indigo.

Fathom winced. "We are, I promise!" he quickly said. "Please, forgive Indigo. We're both really nervous, but we came here with good intentions, I swear. You have my word that from now on, Indigo will not attack or threaten Darkstalker unless he puts my life in danger."

Indigo shot him a disapproving look that seemed to say, _I never said I would agree to that._

Arctic narrowed his eyes. "Fine," he said. "But you're going to have to give me that dagger you've been trying to hide as well."

Indigo looked unsure. She glanced over at Fathom, and he nodded. So she unbuckled the harness that attached the sheath of the dagger beneath her wing, and handed the weapon to Arctic.

With that finally settled, Darstalker smiled at Fathom. "As I was saying, it's an honor to finally meet you. May I shake your talon?"

"No," Indigo said sternly.

Fathom actually found himself wanting to override Indigo and say yes. After having his life threatened like that, a talonshake probably would have been a nice gesture. He didn't want Darkstalker hating him or Indigo. And he really _did_ want to be friends with Darkstalker. Not just because he was dangerous and needed someone he trusted to tell him to stop using magic. But also because Fathom _really_ missed having friends.

But he didn't quite trust Darkstalker yet. He had to trust Indigo's intuition for now. "Not yet," he said after Indigo. "I hope that's not too much trouble. I'm just not … quite comfortable enough right now."

"I perfectly understand," Darkstalker said warmly. "I hope that changes by the end of the day, though. It would be such a shame if we couldn't get along in the end. Anyway — let's get down to business! Where's Clearsight and Listener? I hope I didn't scare them off."

"We're here," Clearsight said. She was sitting right at the edge of the front door with Listener by her side. Listener looked like she'd just seen a ghost, and Clearsight looked oddly pleased.

"Good, good! I'm so sorry about that, Listener." He walked towards them and closed the front door. "This was all so completely unexpected. If you'd like to go home now instead of staying with us, I'd completely understand."

"I think I'll be okay," Listener answered, though she sounded quite rattled. "Um …. May I ask what the SeaWing Prince is doing in your house?"

"Of course." Darkstalker spread his wings behind Clearsight and Listener. "Prince Fathom: this is my girlfriend Clearsight and my friend Listener. Clearsight, Listener: this is Prince Fathom. He's an emissary from the Sea Kingdom who's here to befriend me. Queen Pearl sent him over to help us better understand our powers."

Fathom looked concerningly at Indigo. _That's not right,_ he thought. _We're here to _stop_ exploring animus magic, not to _keep_ exploring it._ Darkstalker probably didn't know that, though. Queen Pearl probably said something very similar to the NightWings when they requested that he be brought over as an emissary.

Darkstalker gave him a devilish smirk that immediately made Fathom freeze up. _I forgot, he can read my thoughts!_ His brain paralyzed itself. He was too afraid to think. What if he or Indigo thought something that ruined their chances at friendship?

Listener took a step forward — which produced a small growl from Indigo — then stopped and bowed her head to Prince Fathom. "It's great to meet you. If you're going to be a friend of Darkstalker's, then I'm sure you'll be a friend of mine too!"

Fathom hesitated, then produced a sheepish smile. He couldn't seem to muster up anything more in response.

"While we're on the topic of magic," Darkstalker said jovially, "why don't we all head to my room? There's something I'm excited to show you all."

Darkstalker walked ahead, stopping to give his mom a hug before moving ahead to his room. His friends followed after.

Fathom's nerves were tangoing with his exhaustion. Before tailing the other NightWings into the chamber that led to Darkstalker's room, he took another sip of the tea that Foeslayer had prepared for him. His muscles were starting to feel numb from how tense he'd been this whole time.

He didn't even notice how long he'd been standing there until Darkstalker called out from his room. "What are you waiting for, Fathom? C'mon, you might actually think this is kinda cool. You can bring your bodyguards if you want."

Fathom glanced at Indigo. Indigo glanced back at him. In Aquatic, she said, _We should probably just leave._

_I agree,_ he flashed back. _We're too vulnerable._

"We're waiting!" Darkstalker called. "Don't you want to see my latest enchantment? You can see for yourself what your powers are capable of."

"You enchanted something?" Fathom said worriedly. "Darkstalker, you know we're actually here to try and make you _stop_ using your magic, right?"

Without another moment's hesitation, he walked to Darkstalker's room. Indigo snapped right to his side, glancing at him like he was about try flying with only one wing.

"I just want to see what he did," Fathom whispered to her. "Maybe I can find a way to talk him out of doing anything else with his powers." _His friends are here. If I can convince them, they might be able to pressure Darkstalker into giving up as well._ It was a longshot, but he might as well take this opportunity.

Wharf and Lionfish followed behind the two of them, but Fathom instructed them to stay outside of Darkstalker's room. It just barely had enough room for everyone currently inside to comfortably fit, and Wharf and Lionfish were larger and clumsier dragons than the rest of them. He didn't want either of them knocking anything over or making everything more cramped.

When Fathom looked inside Darkstalker's room, the candles against the wall lit up a somewhat sparse interior. There was a wide window on the opposite wall with the curtains opened, letting in the moonlight. The three other NightWings were all surrounding the foot end of Darkstalker's bed. Fathom stepped closer to get a better view, and saw that there was a large golden goblet standing atop his blanket. Listener was standing between Darkstalker and Clearsight, her eyes glued to the goblet.

"So, these are enchanted?" she said, reaching forward to touch it.

'_These?' There's more than one?_ Fathom took another step closer, but he only saw the goblet Listener was examining.

"What does it do?" she asked Darkstalker.

"Why don't you find out?" Darkstalker asked, giving Fathom a brief, amused glance before focusing his attention back on Listener. "All you need to do is close your eyes and exhale into the bowl."

Listener swallowed, then nodded. "I hope you know I'm putting a lot of trust in you here."

"I wouldn't make my first animus gift for you anything mean," Darkstalker promised. "Go on."

Darkstalker was practically dancing in place. His smile practically touched his ears. Fathom, meanwhile, felt his nerves skating all over the place. He was pretty sure that the enchantment was probably innocent enough. He also knew that that wasn't what mattered. What mattered was that he was destroying his soul.

And yet, for some reason … he couldn't shake this bad feeling he was getting. _What if he's already gone? What if this enchantment is going to do something terrible to his friend?_

He held his breath as Listener closed her eyes. She leaned forward, exhaled a slow breath of warm air into the bowl of the goblet …

… and disappeared before his eyes.

* * *

**A/N: **That was a longer wait than I was expecting! To those of you who were waiting for this chapter to come out, I hope those two months of waiting weren't too frustrating. I'll make it up to you though! I spent this November writing the next six chapters all in advance, so you've got some reading to look forward to in the forthcoming days.


	10. Chapter 9

**o**

**DARKSTALKER**

"Now Fathom, before you say anything —"

"— _What did you do?!_"

"She's okay, don't freak out."

"She's _gone!_"

"No she's not." Darkstalker shot a grin back at Fathom — who now looked adorably horrified — and took a step towards the goblet. "She just moved."

Before he could explain himself further, Listener's voice rang out. _"Hello?"_ It was a dry echoey voice, as if it were being spoken from the other side of a long metal pipe. And it was coming from the goblet.

"Listener!" Darkstalker said happily. "Can you hear me?"

"_Yeah,"_ she answered. _ "But your voice is really weird. It sounds like it's coming from my chest or something."_

"Really?" Darkstalker bubbled out a laugh. _Not what I intended, but that is totally awesome._

Listener echoed back a laugh of her own. _"Stop laughing, it tickles!"_

That only caused Darkstalker to laugh harder, which only caused Listener to laugh harder. Darkstalker pressed his talons to his snout to muffle his delighted voice.

"Darkstalker," Fathom interjected. When Darkstalker looked over at him, he still looked like he was staring at death itself. "Where is she?"

Darkstalker cleared his throat and exhaled the last of his laughs. "Right, right, we should probably let everyone know that." He directed his attention back to the empty goblet and said, "Listener: can you see anything?"

"_I think so…"_ she answered hesitantly. _"I think I see some lights … and a ceiling …."_

"And what are you standing on?"

"_I'm still trying to figure that out. It's like a … giant golden bowl."_

"Is it a giant bowl?" Darkstalker asked. "Or are you just a tiny dragon now?"

"_What do you mean?"_

"Try climbing out of the goblet."

"_The goblet? But it's so —"_ She let out an audible gasp. _"— Darkstalker! This is the one you gave to the scavengers!"_

"That's right," Darkstalker said, grinning widely. "Are you in one of their huts? What do you see?"

"_I see scavengers!"_

Darkstalker scrambled closer to the goblet and leaned into it. "What are they doing?" he asked.

"_I think I can see two of them talking, but they sound totally different. Their voices are so much — wait, can they hear me?"_

"No, they can't," Darkstalker said. "They can't see you either. But they _can _touch you, so don't get too reckless. If you need to teleport back here, put your talons on your head and say, 'get me out of here.'"

"Um, Darkstalker?" Fathom asked, _finally_ sounding like he'd gotten over that silly panic attack of his. "Could you explain what's going on?"

"Of course," Darkstalker said, turning to face Fathom. _It's about time he let his curiosity show._ There was this trapped voice in the back of his mind that was reaching out with all of its might, _begging_ for a friendship with Darkstalker. It was being drowned out by Fathom's overwhelming fear of magic, but it was endlessly resilient. And it was getting louder and louder the more curious he got.

He hadn't _planned_ on showing Listener her new toy with Fathom in the room, but he didn't want to wait until later. Perhaps, he thought, he could kill two birds with one stone. He could start to encourage Fathom to open up, but on the other talon he could also start to help Fathom reassociate animus magic with something good once again. "Do you know why I wasn't able to make it to your welcoming party?" he asked.

"The queen said you were doing some sort of personal project," Fathom said.

"It was because my friends and I were on a very important mission. My school had imprisoned a number of scavengers for the students to study — leaving them miserable and keeping them locked in little cages where other dragons would torment them while they were trying to sleep."

Fathom tilted his head. "Aren't scavengers those annoying furless monkeys that live in colonies?"

"_They're not annoying!"_ Listener protested. _"They're adorable and super smart!"_

Darkstalker nodded. "Listener's right. We know because we've listened to their thoughts. I don't think they're quite as smart as us, but they're definitely self-aware."

"So you tried to free them?" Fathom guessed.

"We _did_ free them," Darkstalker corrected. "Just a few hours ago. There wasn't any school today, so we snuck in and gathered all the trapped scavengers and brought them back to a little den tucked away in the forest."

"_Which you can't tell anyone about, by the way,"_ Listener said sternly. _"We'll get in huge trouble if they catch us."_

"Aren't they going to catch you eventually?" Fathom asked. "Once somebody reads your mind, they'll find out you did it."

"You learn to avoid letting certain thoughts slip after a while when you're in a NightWing society," Darkstalker explained. "We'll be safe as long as we keep the teachers from suspecting us."

"Which is actually less likely than you might think," Clearsight warned.

"Well — even if we do get caught, we've already done the deed," Darkstalker said proudly. "Those scavengers are free again. They were welcomed into the scavenger den, safe and sound. And, as a gesture of my good will, I gave them a small golden chalice — just like this one on my bed, but tiny enough for a scavenger to use instead of a dragon."

Fathom frowned at that. _Somehow I'm getting the feeling that you gave it to them for more than just the purpose of good will,_ he thought.

"Of course, I did add an enchantment to it," Darkstalker said slyly. "A completely harmless spell," he quickly added, noting Fathom's immediate tensing up.

"_A totally _awesome_ spell, I'd say!"_ Listener added. _"I wish you could see what I was seeing right now."_

"The enchantment teleports Listener from this goblet to the one I gave the scavengers," Darkstalker explained. "But it also makes her very small, so that she can study the scavengers more discreetly. Right now, she's a little bit smaller than a scavenger's head."

"_I think I can hear them better now that I'm smaller, too,"_ Listener added. _"Remember how I told you before that I think they have their own language? Well, I'm pretty sure I can actually hear them speaking it."_

"What are they saying?" Fathom asked.

"_How should I know? It's not like they're speaking Dragon. But there's definitely a pattern to what they're saying."_

"How many scavengers can you see?" Darkstalker asked.

"_Just two right now, and neither of them are the ones we rescued. I can't really tell what's going on in their heads. All I can really read from their thoughts are a couple of short memories,__ and … aww, they just left."_

"Come on back, then," Darkstalker said, taking a step back to leave a bit of space in front of the goblet.

"_Alright…. Get me out of here."_

A moment later, Listener was back, standing right where she was before, completely unharmed. She looked around her, and let out a happy sigh. "Whoo! That is so awesome, Darkstalker! Do I really get to keep this?"

"Absolutely," Darkstalker said to her. "It was your idea to free the scavengers, after all. You should get the opportunity to study them."

Listener's eyes glittered at him. "Thank you! I'll cherish it forever. Except, I don't know how I'm going to bring this back to my house without my parents asking about it. They probably won't be too thrilled about me having an animus enchanted item."

"I can hold onto it until you've figured something out," Darkstalker said. "In the meantime, we should probably be sending Prince Fathom home. He must be exhausted."

Fathom actually smiled a little bit, looking thankful. "It's been a very long day," he agreed.

"I'll be sure to come visit you tomorrow," Darkstalker told him. "I need to make it up to you for missing the party. Do you know your way back to the palace?"

"I think so," Fathom said.

"You should ask Foeslayer to escort you," Clearsight said, looking concerned. "Just to make sure you get back safely."

"I can do that," Indigo said, making her way out. "I need to get my weapons back from Arctic too. Which reminds me —" She turned back and glared at Darkstalker. "Darkstalker, don't invite us here again. I need to be armed when you're around Fathom."

Darkstalker let out a fake smile. This dragon was trouble. He knew that she was going to threaten his life because Clearsight had warned him about that ahead of time, but that spear still rattled him. He didn't know yet how he was going to deal with her.

Clearsight had _also_ told him about the things he did to Indigo in the previous timeline. Entrapping her in a little wooden dragon sounded terrible when he'd heard it, but now that he met her, he was starting to see the justification.

He could do better this time, though. He didn't need Indigo to become an enemy that needed to be disposed of. Instead, he could turn her into an ally. He could gain her trust, just like how he knew he could gain Fathom's trust too. All he needed was time and a little bit of charm.

"When I see you at the palace, you can point that spear at me all you want," Darkstalker said to her right before she crossed the doorway. "So you'll have that to look forward to tomorrow. Oh — by the way, you never told us your name."

"Because you don't need to know it," she answered dismissively, without breaking a step.

When she was out of sight, Fathom spoke up. "Her name's Indigo. She's my main bodyguard. The other two waiting outside are Wharf and Lionfish." Darkstalker could feel a bit of embarrassment stirring in his head, which he had to keep himself from smiling at. "I'm sorry about the way she's treating you," he said. "She takes her job very seriously."

"I understand," Darkstalker said. "I'm sure you're also familiar with dragons treating you unfairly because of your powers. Here's hoping our friendship will push back against that." He extended a talon for Fathom to shake.

With a friendly face, Fathom shook it. "I'm glad you see it that way," he said.

And it wasn't until Fathom let go that he appeared to _realize _that he shook Darkstalker's talon then and there. The smile slowly ran away from his face, and he stood up straighter. "Actually, wait a minute," he said. "Darkstalker, I'm not treated unfairly. I'm treated like I'm dangerous, because that's exactly what I am."

Darkstalker deflated a little. "Oh, Fathom —"

"Our powers aren't safe," he said. "They could destroy us. They could destroy everyone we love. Please, Darkstalker: don't let your soul get eaten away. If you really want to be my friend, promise me you'll never use your powers again."

"Are you _serious?!_" Listener suddenly said. "But look at what he just made for me! Look at how amazing it is!"

"It might be exciting now, but every enchantment is costing him a little bit more of his soul," Fathom told her. "You might not know when he's turning evil until it's too late."

Hmm. This would be tricky. Fathom was so full of fear and guilt. He seemed to be able to distract himself from it, but it was still there. And as long as it was still there, he wouldn't fully trust him.

He ought to be able to fix that. Fathom had forgotten how amazing his gift could be, but with Darkstalker's help, he could remember again. And once he did, their friendship would be legendary. Darkstalker could have the support of the next most powerful dragon in the world. He just needed to play his cards right.

As for his bodyguard, Indigo — she might be a tougher nut to crack, but Darkstalker was hopeful that the problem she posed would take care of itself. He was lucky that she made that threat of hers in front of everybody else. She didn't make any friends with that move. Now she would have to stay on her toes when others were around her — and hopefully in the process, she would end up bending a little.

He got the eerie feeling that Indigo had saved herself by making that mistake. If she proved that she would always be a source of trouble, then Darkstalker _would _have to find a way to get rid of her the way he apparently did last time. And given how much Fathom obviously loved her, he really didn't want to do that. By the way the futures looked, she wasn't going to be so motivated to get in his way now.

"You're asking me to make a very big promise, Fathom," Darkstalker told him. "I can't give up animus magic simply because you want me to. But you've convinced me to be more careful. I'll stop using my powers as frivolously as I have been. And I'll make sure Clearsight keeps a close eye on the future."

Fathom shrank a little. "Are you just saying that?" he asked.

"I'm serious," Darkstalker said. "You're not the first dragon to worry about my soul. I've always tried to be cautious with my magic, but perhaps I've grown too careless lately. It means a lot to hear another animus dragon worry about me in the same way." He started to walk out of his room. "Now, let's get you back to the palace. I want to show you the view from the Royal Tower tomorrow."

He brightened his face as he showed Fathom to the door. This was a delightfully productive surprise indeed. Despite the poor SeaWing's worries, Darkstalker could still hear that voice calling out louder than ever in his mind — a voice begging for companionship, hoping that the two of them would get along.

Darkstalker wanted that too. He could see all of the amazing memories the two of them would share once Fathom opened up to him. He could see all that self-loathing and guilt of his slowly fading away. He could see this friendship blossoming into so much happiness for the both of them.

He almost found himself wanting that more than he wanted the Night Kingdom. Being king of the NightWings would have been great, but he had to become king the way he wanted to. And that way involved keeping his friendship with Fathom.

He needed that friendship first. The Kingdom could wait.


	11. Chapter 10

**o**

**CLEARSIGHT**

They got caught.

The very next school day, the teachers were on Listener's case, since she'd been asking a suspiciously large number of questions about scavengers lately. Darkstalker knew that all of them would get caught if they interrogated her, so he went to the school principal and confessed before they could bring Listener in for questioning. He tried to reconstruct the story so that the scavenger rescue was mostly his idea and therefore mostly his responsibility, but it didn't work in the end.

It might have, if Listener didn't have so much pride.

"He said _what?!_" Listener barked once she and Clearsight were called to the principal's office. "How _dare_ you try and take credit for my idea, Darkstalker!"

Darkstalker grimaced at Listener, but didn't say anything. Meanwhile, Principal Starstreak folded his brow at them. He had silver teardrop scales that were so bright that they nearly looked like they were glowing. Clearsight found them extremely intimidating. "How long have you had this plan?"

"Over a year now!" Listener said. "Darkstalker only came in like two months ago. He has _no right_ to pretend he's the one responsible for this!"

"I disagree," Darkstalker argued. "I helped work out just as many details as you did, if not more."

"You so did not! I spent a year figuring out the when and how, and you slunked in at the last second to figure out the where."

"You were _tentative_ on the when and how at best," Darkstalker said. "You may have been the one to come up with the idea, but the way it turned out was pretty much entirely me. Just admit that you have no responsibility for what happened."

"You _jerk_!" Listener fumed. "You _know_ that's a lie. How could you even say that?"

"That's enough!" Starstreak said sternly. "I don't care who did what. I don't care why any of you did this. All I care about is that it happened, and that you're all responsible. Since all of you participated, all of you are guilty." He pulled a couple of papers from his office cabinet and began to write on them with a fine-tipped pen. "I hope you understand the severity of this. You didn't just violate school policy. You vandalized public property and broke the law. Since the school is in the Great Diamond, I'm going to have to report this to Queen Vigilance, and she will decide what to do with you. In the meantime, the three of you are suspended until further notice."

Clearsight tried not to care. She wasn't going to be missing anything from her suspension, since she'd already finished the semester during her last timeline. And the two dragons she cared about the most were getting suspended with her, so she knew she wouldn't be missing any school drama among them.

But she still felt like breaking into tears then and there. _This has to be a mistake! I'm a good dragon! I'm not the delinquent student that gets detentions and suspensions; I'm the star pupil that aces all of her classes and listens to the teachers. I'm so ashamed of myself. What are my parents going to think of me?_

Starstreak gave them each signed notes affirming their suspension, and dismissed them immediately afterwards. When the door to the office was shut behind them, there was a strange tension among the three NightWings — as if each of them individually wanted to let out a sigh of relief, but none of them were actually relieved yet.

"Well, what's done is done," Darkstalker said. When Clearsight looked over at him, she was a little relieved to see that he looked a little distressed too. "We did the right thing, and that's what matters. Let's just go home."

Clearsight dreaded the days that were going to follow. Her parents confronted her after they were instructed to go to a meeting later that night regarding Clearsight's behavior. As expected, they grounded her, which they actually seemed a little excited to do. "Remember how before you went to school, we punished you by forcing you to go outside?" her father asked her. "It's nice to see we have to do the opposite now."

"Do you _really_ have to do this?" Clearsight asked him. "It's bad enough that I can't go to school anymore."

"I can't let you go out and get into more trouble when you're supposed to be punished," he said, his tone of voice changing in a way that seemed to suggest that he had to remind himself to be angry again. "Consider yourself lucky we're only grounding you for a week. What got into you? This isn't something the daughter we raised would do."

"I thought I was doing the right thing," she said.

"_Really?_ Because from where I'm standing, there's nothing right about what you did. You broke into the school. You destroyed expensive equipment in the science lab. You rendered the rest of the biology curriculum completely infeasible until the teachers find more scavengers to replace the ones you stole. You embarrassed your mother and me in front of the principal, and you'll probably do the same in front of the queen when she summons us for the laws that _you_ broke." He shook his head. "C'mon, Clearsight. You're a seer. I thought you were supposed to be _good _at figuring out the consequences of your actions."

Clearsight hung her head and pinned her ears. "But those scavengers are free now."

"So what?" her father said. "You didn't put a stop to anything. They're working on finding new ones right now. If you want your school to stop keeping scavengers, then you do that by talking to the dragons in charge, not by recklessly taking matters into your own talons and causing all this trouble. Now no one's ever gonna listen to you about this."

Clearsight didn't have anything to say for herself. _This felt so much more heroic and valiant in the last timeline where we didn't get caught._

"Principal Starstreak told us that it was mostly your friends who did the scheming, not you," he went on. "Is that true?"

"I guess…"

"I suppose that's good. But it doesn't put your friends in a good light. You and Listener have been close for a long time now, and she hasn't gotten you into any trouble before. As for Darkstalker — you're still dating him, right?"

Clearsight tilted her head. "Uh, yeah. Why?"

"Because you're not anymore," he said. "I don't want you seeing him again, alright?"

"_What?!_" Clearsight straightened herself up and stood firm. "Dad, you can't split us up!"

"I _can_ and I _will_," he said. "Your mother agrees. He's too bad of an influence on you."

"But Darkstalker didn't — Listener and I were planning to do this before he even got involved."

"But you didn't actually do anything until he got involved."

"We were going to do this whether he joined us or not —"

"Clearsight, that's enough. Your mother and I aren't changing our minds on this." He walked to her bedroom door and turned his head. "We're not used to punishing you. I hope this doesn't start to become a regular occurence."

When he closed the door on Clearsight and left her in her room, such a strange concoction of emotions stirred through her. She knew that she _was_ going to see Darkstalker again and that this wasn't going to change the likelihood of them sharing a future. In fact, in pretty much all of the likely futures ahead of her, they eventually forgot about this mishap and forgave her in the end.

But right now, that didn't matter. She felt like a dragon who was just pretending to be the morally sound Clearsight that she had once been. The fact that her parents weren't on her side right now — that they were directly opposed to her being with Darkstalker — it made her alone and abandoned and ashamed and sinful.

Maybe it should have. She angered a lot of kindhearted teachers, robbed her fellow students of a large section of their biology curriculum, and broke a promise she'd implicitly made to not violate any of the school's policy.

Maybe her father was right. Maybe she should have tried to talk Darkstalker and Listener out of their plan. Maybe they should have looked for another way to free them without breaking school rules, perhaps by starting up student movement to pressure the teachers into freeing the scavengers by themselves. That would have been the approach she would have taken if she were the one making the decisions.

_But it wouldn't have worked,_ a voice told her — a voice she believed. _We would have just broadcast our intentions sooner and made rescuing them ourselves impossible, all while the teachers refused to free the scavengers themselves._

No, she did the right thing. Darkstalker and Listener were right. She shouldn't have been ashamed that she helped them, even though she had to break a few rules and upset a few dragons and make a bit of a mess in the school in order to do it. Perhaps she was just upset with herself for getting caught this time.

Nonetheless, she spent the next four days in her room, festering over that feeling that she was _worse_, and that she couldn't trust herself to know right from wrong anymore. And she would have kept festering for longer had it not been due to a letter from Queen Vigilance.

"Clearsight, you've been summoned by the queen," her mother said after opening the door on her. "She wishes to see you tomorrow evening at sunset."

Clearsight — who had been lying on her bed at the time — dropped the scroll she was reading onto her chest and groaned. "Great."

"You shouldn't be so pouty," her mother scolded. "You brought this on yourself, you know. Pick out some nice jewelry to wear, alright? We'll be leaving early in the afternoon to meet with her."

As far as Clearsight could tell, tomorrow was actually going to be a pretty good day. She was going to see Darkstalker again, and the queen appeared to be pretty likely to go easy on them. At the very least, she didn't see any futures where Vigilance threw her in a prison cell or forced her to do any menial labor.

It was tough for her to siphon out any refined details, though. There was going to be a lot of talking, and she learned at this point that trying to trace the trajectory of of conversations was impossible. There were too many threads — too many ways in which outcomes could change because someone said something differently, or with a slightly different tone. She was better off getting to sleep early and being well-rested when she saw Vigilance.

The next day, Clearsight put on her favorite crescent moon earrings and ate a fresh squirrel for breakfast before polishing her scales with some fragrant oil and flying to the palace. She showed up in Queen Vigilance's throne room accompanied by her parents right at sunset. Darkstalker was already there waiting with his entire family. His face lit up when he saw her approaching, and Clearsight found herself standing taller and prouder because of him.

"Young Clearsight," the queen said as Clearsight bowed low to her. "You and your friends have had quite the adventure this past week, I heard."

"I beg your forgiveness, Your Majesty," Clearsight said automatically. "I acted believing that I was truly doing the right thing."

"Your apology is accepted," Vigilance said. "I have much more important things to worry about than your acts of vigilantism. I brought you in to discuss a different matter entirely."

Clearsight tilted her head. "You did?"

"Indeed. Darkstalker has told me much about you these past couple of days. He claims that your clairvoyance skills are impeccable, and that you would make a fine choice as my head seer. Would you care to share some of your prophecies?"

_Well, there's one I'm seeing right now where Darkstalker is sitting where you are, wearing a much larger crown and ruling over a much larger kingdom._ She refrained from mentioning that one.

_This happened last timeline, didn't it? What did I do before?_ She scanned the queen's court and found Allknowing — the seer professor at her school — scowling at her. _Oh, right._

"As a matter of fact, I very recently had a vision that I was going to tell you about on my own behalf," she said, using her memory more than her powers for this. "Your Majesty, there's going to be an IceWing invasion on North Beach. If you don't do anything to stop it, they will attack on the next night where there are two new moons."

Queen Vigilance stiffened up and eyed her suspiciously. "That doesn't sound like a prophecy to me."

"I know it's not a fancy poem, but it is what I saw," Clearsight told her. "Most of my visions don't come to me in the form of cryptic rhymes. They're actual _visions_. And if I close my eyes and use my powers to look further ahead, I can make more come to me."

Vigilance's eyes widened. "Is that so? Actual details instead of confusing rhymes … I like that."

Allknowing suddenly chimed in. "Your Majesty, I must recommend against appointing this dragon."

"And why is that?" Vigilance asked her. "Because you would be demoted if I did?"

"No, Your Majesty. It's because she is lying about the extent of her powers." Allknowing's eyes narrowed. "Clearsight was a student of mine prior to her suspension. I've had to dismiss her numerous times for reciting false visions and exaggerating the meaning of prophecies."

"_What?!_" Clearsight nearly shrieked. "Queen Vigilance, that's completely untrue!"

"Seers don't have the abilities that she claims to have," Allknowing went on. "She's advertising the impossible to you, and if you're gullible enough to appoint her, you'll be wasting precious resources that we need to win this war."

Clearsight was so astounded that she couldn't speak. She genuinely wondered if Allknowing believed her accusation. After her first day in class with her, Clearsight tried to be more secretive about her powers, but she knew that Allknowing was continually suspicious and jealous of her. In the last timeline, Allknowing hadn't said any of this, but Allknowing also hadn't had time to prepare for Clearsight's arrival. This time, she must've known ahead of time.

This had to be intentional. Allknowing knew _exactly_ what she was doing. And something passionate burned in Clearsight that demanded she not let Allknowing get away with this.

_I can prove my powers are real. I can show her that I know things only a seer as powerful as me can know._ She was _so_ going to regret this.

"Perhaps you're right, Allknowing," Vigilance said contemplatively. "I will have to think about this further. Tell me, what do you think about her vision of an invasion?"

"I will grant that she may have had a vision of the IceWings staging an invasion by sea," Allknowing said. "I saw the same thing, if you recall. '_Waves of ice dragons will wash at our gate_' was a line in my last recitation. As for whether it will be on the shores of North Beach, however, I assume is guesswork on her end."

"It's not guesswork," Clearsight insisted. "If you don't listen to me, the IceWings could establish a foothold in the Talon Peninsula. That could lead them to a victory in this war."

"I think if you _do_ listen to her, you'll focus your attention and resources on a red herring, which will leave other openings to our kingdom exposed," Allknowing retorted. "Queen Vigilance, don't forget that it was only last week that the dragons in front of you broke your laws and got suspended from our school. Is it really wise to listen to them, let alone appoint one onto your council?"

Vigilance frowned. "I'm afraid I must trust the advice of my head seer," she said. "As annoying as her rhymes have been in the past, she has never deceived me before."

"Your Majesty, you're making a mistake," Darkstalker said, rising to his feet. "Clearsight's powers are exactly as she claims they are. She can see further in the future than any other seer I know."

"We can attest to our daughter's abilities as well," Clearsight's father said. "She studied the timelines she saw quite obsessively before she started school. I know she's young, but I think you should consider appointing her. She always wanted to work under you."

"That's enough," Vigilance commanded. "I have already stated my intended course of action on the matter, and I will not reiterate it. I will keep scouts on the shores of North Beach until the night you are referring to, Clearsight. If your vision ends up being true, I will reconsider appointing you. But for now, there will be no more talk of it. Our next matter of discussion is —"

— Clearsight's eyes flashed. "Darkstalker," she and Vigilance said at the same time. Darkstalker glanced over at her, confused.

Vigilance grew quiet. She looked royally offended, but she waited for Clearsight to speak again.

"You want to move Darkstalker into the palace," Clearsight said. "Since he's supposed to be spending time with Fathom, you've prepared a suite for him in the palace for him to live in until Fathom returns to the Sea Kingdom." She smiled victoriously. "Is that right?"

Vigilance still didn't say anything immediately. She stayed quiet and calculating until Allknowing began an attempt to sputter something out. "Of _course_ she knew —"

"— Quiet, Allknowing," Vigilance interrupted calmly. "Clearsight, tell me how you knew that."

"It was in the future," Clearsight said. "There was nothing else that could have happened to keep this matter from being discussed, so I was able to see it very clearly."

"Come on, Your Majesty, do you really think there was no other way for Clearsight to figure this out?" Allknowing argued. "Darkstalker must have learned about this ahead of time and talked to Clearsight about it."

"I certainly did not," Darkstalker said, frowning. "If I did, I probably would have spoken to the queen about it before Clearsight."

"Plus, Clearsight has been grounded all week," her father said. "She and Darkstalker haven't spoken in days."

Vigilance hummed in thought. "You're starting to sound very convincing, Clearsight," she said, "but I'd like to rule out any other possibilities. Can you see in your visions the suite that I have prepared for Darkstalker?"

Clearsight took a second to look ahead. "I can," she said. "It has a very nice fountain." She tried to avoid glancing at Allknowing as she slowly began to contort herself into a ball of rage.

"As I'm sure you know, there are hundreds of rooms in this palace," Vigilance said. "Since I planned on leading Darkstalker to the room that I've prepared for him, would your future sight be able to tell you where it is?"

"It would be," Clearsight answered.

"May you lead us there yourself, then?"

Clearsight smiled victoriously. "Gladly," she said.

They began to follow Clearsight down one of the many halls of the royal palace. She used the threads of future memories to help lead her through the palace chambers, ascending a flight of shallow stairs and starting down a long corridor.

Darkstalker stepped ahead and brushed his wing with Clearsight's. "How long did you know about Vigilance's plans for me?" he asked her quietly.

"Only just now," Clearsight whispered back. When she looked over at Darkstalker, she saw his face filled with frustration.

"I wish I'd known sooner," he grumbled. "She could have _asked_ me about it first."

She stopped in front of what she was certain to be the suite the queen had prepared for her. Vigilance brushed ahead of her and opened the door, inviting everyone in. Orange lanterns adorned the walls, lighting up a large room with black marble columns and a coal-black carpeting. A mural of the galaxy was painted on the ceiling, and a pair of curtains shielded a balcony on the opposite end of the room. There were doorways on either end, one of which presumably led to a washroom while the other led to a bedroom. There was a bookshelf at one corner, a desk at another, and four or five cushions and mats organized neatly in emptier parts of the chamber.

"I've changed my mind, Clearsight," Vigilance said. "You'll be working for me now, starting tonight. I will bestow a generous salary to you and your family, and you will be given a room in the palace before the end of the day."

"A room?" Clearsight's father said. "I'm sorry, but does that mean that Clearsight will be moving into the palace?"

"Of course," Vigilance said. "All members of the royal court live in the palace. Clearsight should be no exception."

"But she's only four," he argued. "She still needs to go to school, and be looked after by her parents."

"Then I will arrange for her and her friends to be unsuspended before next weekend," she said. "And she will be fed and cared for just like every other dragonet that has lived in the palace." She tilted her head at her parents. "I figured you'd be more enthusiastic about this. You said yourself that Clearsight has always wanted to work for me."

"She did," Clearsight's mother said, "but we weren't expecting you to take her out of our house."

"I promise you, there won't be any drastic changes," Vigilance insisted. "You can visit any time you want, and she can still go and see her friends, as long as she does her duties for me. Plus, she'll be living in the palace with Darkstalker: the two lovebirds can now see each other whenever they want."

Clearsight's father clamped his mouth shut and grimaced.

"Actually, about that —" Darkstalker piped up, "Queen Vigilance, this is a very nice suite, but I don't believe I ever said that I wanted to move into the palace."

"Yes, I didn't wait for your opinion this time," Vigilance said. "Prince Fathom convinced me that I ought to be keeping an eye on what you were doing, and I figured that the only way to do that reliably would be to bring you into the palace."

_Uh oh._ Clearsight didn't like that sour face that Darkstalker was wearing. "I think that's a little unnecessary, Your Majesty," he said. "I don't need to be watched like a hatchling. I've proven my good behavior, haven't I?"

"Aside from your refusal to attend last week's party in favor of vandalizing the school, yes, you have." Vigilance frowned. "But that can change, just as it did for Albatross in the Sea Kingdom. I can't let the NightWing's first animus be as disastrous as the SeaWing's first animus. I'll need to keep an eye on you to make sure that doesn't happen."

"Your Majesty?" Arctic asked. "Where will _we_ be staying?" He spread his wings, gesturing towards Foeslayer and Whiteout.

Vigilance blinked. "What are you talking about? You have your own house, right?"

"We do, but I assumed that if Darkstalker would be moving into the palace, the rest of his family would be moving in as well."

"Oh," Vigilance said. "Well, you assumed wrong."

"May_ I_ at least dwell alongside my brother?" Whiteout asked innocently. "We've been braided together since I hatched, and it looks like there's room for another bed in these chambers."

"Most _certainly_ not," Vigilance said before Darkstalker could even nod in approval at the idea. "An oddity like you would not be appropriate company for the royal court."

Darkstalker sent a death glare to the queen, and Clearsight felt an intense swell of doom as a violent vision crashed through her mind. But just as quickly as it showed up did it vanish when Whiteout promptly responded. "Perfectly understandable, Your Majesty! I must visit often, then. My brother will need me when he starts asking for silver."

"Very well," Queen Vigilance said. "Try and speak with Darkstalker outside of the palace to schedule your visits. We wouldn't want you interrupting important council meetings. In the meantime, Clearsight: I shall have a study room prepared for you at once. I want all of the details of this invasion written up and handed to me by morning."

"Yes, Queen Vigilance," Clearsight said.

The queen then walked off, heading back to her throne room. Clearsight saw Darkstalker walking up to her, looking much more welcoming compared to the analytical scowl that Queen Vigilance had been holding for so long. Meanwhile, their parents began to murmur their concerns amongst one another.

"So, uh, I may have spoken to the queen about you a little bit," Darkstalker said, raising his ears playfully.

"Y'know, I would have appreciated it if you'd told me about your plan to recommend me to the queen ahead of time," Clearsight said to him. "There's a whole concoction of unknowns I'll have to deal with now."

"I figured now would be as good a time as ever," he said to her. "We're not in school right now, and I knew you wanted this position. Besides, you tried pretty hard to convince her, so this can't be _too_ disappointing for you. When did you learn about that invasion plan?"

"In the last timeline, actually," Clearsight said. She drifted forward, further away from her parents so that she and Darkstalker could talk more privately. "I got the vision when Listener and I were freeing the scavengers. I warned the queen about it, and she rewarded me with a job in the palace — just like she did here." She shook her head a bit. "But it's _different_ this time. This time, Allknowing is probably going to get fired, which means I'm going to have to stop showing up to her classes … I might have to stop going to school entirely if the queen starts to overwork me."

"Well, I can't say I'm too thrilled about all this either," Darkstalker said. "The whole 'I need to be watched' thing does not sit well with me. Stupid Fathom: why did he have to blabber on to the queen like that?" He thumped his tail against the ground. "And did you hear what she said about Whiteout? Argh, I was ready to strangle her right there."

"I know," Clearsight said. "You're lucky Whiteout interrupted before you did."

"This isn't so bad, though," he said, smiling at her. "It'll be nice staying here in the palace with you."

Clearsight flicked her tail, smiling back. "I agree with that. Though I don't think our parents will."

"They'll have to deal with it, I suppose," Darkstalker said. "Now come on, let's take a look at the suite before Vigilance comes back to drag you off."

Something changed in the timelines, Clearsight noticed. Today sent ripples through the possible futures, changing the landscape of the world ahead of her that she saw.

And it changed the futures in a worrying way. They didn't get _darker_, at least not as far as she could tell. But the good and the bad futures intermingled themselves in ways she hadn't seen before. Paths that were once bright and safe now had black tendrils snaking off, leading to new, grim possibilities. Paths that once were hopeless now had weak threads of light sprouting through them.

She couldn't be certain why this happened, but it didn't surprise her. With two animus dragons and the world's most powerful seer now living under the ceiling of the royal palace, there were plenty of opportunities for very good and very bad things to happen.

This would have been great if Clearsight had complete control of the pathway to the future. But she'd been doubting just how much control she actually had ever since she was forced to turn back time.

* * *

**A/N:** I had to do a lot of revising in this chapter, adding an extra 1,000 words to the original draft, so it took a touch longer than expected to get it out. I want to add another scene in the next chapter and restructure things a little bit, so please patient with me until then. As always, let me know what you think! :)


	12. Chapter 11

**o**

**FATHOM**

Indigo soared over to the tree branch that the others were perched on, and Fathom promptly followed behind her. It was early in the morning, and despite the fact that it was well past bedtime for him and his NightWing friends, he felt wide awake. Adventure was in the air. The light from the sky warmed his scales. The birds were tweeting their morning songs.

A gentle breeze swept him up in the air. He was amazed by how sensitive his trajectory was to even the lightest bouts of wind. Being tiny forced him to surrender a lot of his control in the air.

The tree branch gave slightly when he landed on it. He gripped the bark with all four of his talons, keeping his wings outstretched until his center of balance was over his footing. Nervously, he looked over at Listener, who was running this whole operation.

"Alright, now look right over there," Listener said, pointing at a wooden hut in the distance.

Fathom leaned forward to look when a bluebird fluttered over and attempted to land on him. He shouted in panic — partly because he lost his balance and started falling over, but mostly because he was _not_ used to bluebirds being larger than him.

He opened his wings and managed to take flight before he could hit the ground, but his heart was pounding once he lifted back up into the air and returned back to his friends. By now they were all in the air, giggling nervously, while the bluejay confusedly flitted off to another branch.

"You alright there, Fathom?" Indigo asked, taking her part in the dying choir of snickers.

"I'm fine," he said, finding a spot to land again.

"Aww, are you afraid of some little birdies?" Darkstalker teased.

"Evidently so!" Fathom tried to say unashamedly, though he felt himself flustering up. "That thing can _hurt_ me. If we get injured here, do we get injured in real life?"

"This _is _real life," Darkstalker said, perching on the branch again. "So yes, you most certainly will."

Fathom moaned. "I'm starting to regret this."

"Don't you dare!" Listener said. "You've never seen scavengers like this before. It's the most awesome and adorable thing ever and you will not have the right to regret it when we're done here."

"I can attest to their awesomeness," Darkstalker said. "Clearsight almost got expelled trying to save some of them."

"Excuse me?" Clearsight said. "What are you mentioning _me_ for? You got punished just as much as I did."

"Well, we wouldn't be very impressed if something motivated Darkstalker to get himself expelled," Indigo said plainly.

"Exactly, Clearsight!" Darkstalker said, nodding. "If scavengers are cool enough that _you_ decide to break the school rules in order to save them, then that just goes to show how cool they really are." He shot a friendly smile at Indigo.

Fathom had his eyes on Indigo to see if she'd smile back. And she did smile back. But it was the smile she wore when she got the right answer in her geography lessons, not the smile she wore when she was sharing a joke with Fathom.

Nonetheless, Fathom saw it as progress. He wanted Indigo to get along with Darkstalker as well as Darkstalker got along with him. And she was definitely moving closer to Darkstalker, even though that wasn't really saying much. Any step she took was an improvement on her old implicit desires to murder him the next opportunity she got.

She had been so consistently suspicious of Darkstalker that it was actually starting to get on his nerves. He remembered the day that Darkstalker made them the soul reader to prove his good intentions and how he and Indigo had responded so differently to it.

Fathom was so relieved. He and Darkstalker were at the same level — mostly good, with about one quarter of the sand being white. Clearsight had acted as something of a control-dragon: when the soul reader was pointed at her, there was only slightly less white sand in the hourglass than there was for either of them. As far as Fathom was concerned, that confirmed it: animus magic hadn't taken over their souls.

Indigo, however, only grew more suspicious of Darkstalker after that. "He's trying to get you to let your guard down, Fathom. Can't you see that?" she'd said to him later that day once they were alone.

"He might be," Fathom admitted. "But is that really such a bad thing? I think he's just trying to get me to loosen up a little."

"We're not _here_ to loosen up! We're here to make sure he doesn't do anything dangerous, and now he's one spell closer to losing his soul."

"Maybe not," Fathom said. "He doesn't have animus magic in his body anymore. He put it all in that scroll."

"That doesn't change anything, Fathom," she protested. "We don't know how this magic works. It could still be eating away at him."

"I know, but still — the soul reader said he was still good. Doesn't that prove he has good intentions?"

Indigo shook her head. "I think it proves just the opposite. If he _did_ care about his soul, he would have made that reader a long time ago. He just made it to make you feel more relaxed around him."

"I _want_ to feel more relaxed around him, Indigo!" Fathom said, his fins flaring a bit. "He's our friend. What's so bad about trusting him for a change?"

Indigo let him have the last word with that. Fathom noticed that she did that whenever he started to raise his voice. He also noticed that _he_ did that whenever _she_ started to raise _her _voice. Whenever they had this argument — which they'd had many, many times by this point — it always ended the moment one of them began losing their temper.

He never liked getting mad at Indigo, so he was always grateful that they were both able to agree to damper down discussion before he could ever get truly upset. But at the same time, he worried that they were forcing themselves into an impasse. Was Fathom ever going to actually convince Indigo to be less suspicious of Darkstalker if he stopped arguing with her the moment she started shouting at him?

Maybe Indigo had to decide that on her own. About a month had passed since Darkstalker made his soul reader, and Fathom had only been feeling better and better about him — and better and better about himself. His misery turned into joy. His loneliness turned into excitement. He started actually going outside and hunting and playing. Darkstalker, Clearsight, and Listener were starting to convince him that he deserved to have friends, and that it was okay for others to trust him. And the more he convinced himself of that, the more he believed it was okay to trust Darkstalker.

But nobody could have convinced Fathom that Darkstalker was trustworthy except for Darkstalker himself. Maybe Indigo was the same, and she just needed a bit more time to open up to him.

"Look!" Listener said, pointing a talon at the hut. "One's coming out!'

Out from one of the huts emerged what was undoubtedly a scavenger. It was wearing leather garments over most of its body, including a crude pair of deerskin covers around its feet. _Are they covering the bottoms of its feet too? _Fathom wondered. _Wouldn't that make balancing more difficult? They're on two feet all the time for crying out loud._

What he also found curious was its chin, which had several little hairs on it. What were those for? Were they like the barbels on SeaWing chins, which were meant to help taste the ocean water and pick up the location of prey?

The creature was holding a metal jug. It walked over in their direction, where there was a crude water well. Before putting down the jug, the scavenger squinted up into the sky, opened its mouth, and sneezed.

Listener squealed delightfully. _Okay, that was pretty cute,_ Fathom admitted to himself.

"That one's a male, I'm pretty sure," Listener said. "The males are stronger than females, so they tend to do more of the active labor. Although this one right now is just gathering water."

"How interesting," Darkstalker mused. "Are males usually the leaders in their tribes?"

"I haven't been able to tell if this tribe _does_ have a leader, actually," Listener said. "But if they did, it wouldn't surprise me if it was male."

"So, you've just been watching them like this?" Fathom asked.

"When I can," Listener said. "They're asleep most of the time that I'm awake, so I miss out on a lot. But I did sneak in on them having breakfast one day. They all eat together in that big house over there behind the trees."

"Do they know that you're watching them?"

"Nope," Listener said. "They haven't noticed me yet."

"You should let them," Darkstalker suggested. "Once they know about you, you can start doing some things for them. Maybe you can give them gifts, and they'll start making traditions and rituals about you."

"No thank you," Listener said. "I would much rather observe them in their natural habitat. Which means that until I've seen enough, I have to stay out of their way."

"And you haven't seen enough already?" Darkstalker asked, raising his ears.

"Not at all! There's a pregnant woman in this village. At the _very least_, I want to see what it looks like when she gives birth. They don't lay eggs, you know."

The scavenger by now had a jug full of water, which he was taking a long drink from. Darkstalker used his tail to grab a branch behind him so he could lean forward and get a better view. Suddenly, the scavenger looked up at them. Fathom felt his heart jump. "Darkstalker, you said that they can't see us, right?" he asked, shrinking a little as if trying to _make_ himself invisible.

"They shouldn't be able to," Darkstalker said, keeping himself incredibly still. "I think he's just alerted by the branches."

"How about you stop alerting him, then?" Listener suggested. "I've kept them from suspecting me so far; I don't want you to ruin my cover."

"We'll be fine," Darkstalker said. "As long as I don't move, he'll forget about us and move on. It's not like he can get us from up here anyway."

"It's not a matter of if he can hurt us, it's a matter of if he finds out that there are invisible dragons spying on his village."

"Which won't happen if we're out of his reach," Darkstalker retorted. "Just don't move; he'll lose interest."

The scavenger set his jug onto the ground. Then he lowered his head and started picking through the grass.

"Listener, what's he doing?" Fathom asked nervously.

"I … don't know," Listener answered. "I've never seen a scavenger do that."

Clearsight suddenly stiffened up. "Um, guys? Don't ask why, but I think we should get out of here."

"What? Why?" Darkstalker asked. "I'm still having fun."

"I don't know," she whispered, sounding extremely nervous now. "A bad vision flashed through my head, with a lot of panicking and shouting. I think we're better off playing it safe and leaving now."

"I don't see anything like that in my futures, Clearsight," Darkstalker told her. "But alright, if you say so." He raised his front talons and put them over his head …

… and then got clocked in the head with a flying rock, knocking him off the branch and sending him to the ground.


	13. Chapter 12

**o**

**FATHOM**

Clearsight shrieked and dove down after Darkstalker. Fathom and the others, meanwhile, threw themselves into the air in a panic. "What the heck was that?!" he blurted, eyes darting to and fro in case another rock suddenly catapulted their way.

The scavenger began shouting barbaric gibberish. "_Vey ooness eeay daro! Pawb! Mi ooness ee daro'r bwistvill anhooeleedig!_"

"I think the scavenger threw a rock at Darkstalker," Indigo said, landing beside Darkstalker and Clearsight.

"How?" Fathom asked. "Darkstalker was invisible! How good are scavengers at throwing things?"

"Guys, hurry up and help me get Darkstalker away from here!" Clearsight shouted. "He got knocked out."

Fathom and Listener swept over to Clearsight. She was holding onto Darkstalker, who was slumped over and had blood covering the right side of his face. Fathom bent down to lift him up from his other end when the scavenger ran their way. His foot was mere inches away from trampling Listener when he finally stopped, and Listener let out a terrified scream. She put her talons on her head and shouted, "Get me out of here!" She was gone in an instant. Indigo flew up into the air, soaring over trees. Fathom guessed that she was scanning for other scavengers that might be coming their way.

The scavenger crouched down, looking carefully at them. Fathom pulled Darkstalker in the opposite direction, but the scavenger was much faster. He reached forward with both hands and dexterously grabbed both Fathom and Darkstalker while catching Clearsight's forearm between two of his digits. The scavenger's grip was so strong that Fathom could feel himself suffocating. He let out a panicked croak to signal for help.

Clearsight opened her maw and blasted a plume of fire at the scavenger's face. From the scavenger's point of view, it was no larger than a torch flame, but it was still big enough to startle him into dropping them.

Fathom and Clearsight wrapped their wings around Darkstalker, and he crashed to the ground in a daze of whiplash. He craned his head over to see if the scavenger was still after them, but he appeared to be overwhelmed by the fire he'd just witnessed — shouting more savageries in his native tongue.

Darkstalker suddenly groaned, snapping Fathom's attention his way. "Darkstalker, you have to get out of here!" he told him, ducking low and spreading one of his wings to cover his friend from the scavenger.

"Wha…?" Darkstalker muttered in response.

The scavenger suddenly shrieked and began scurrying. When Fathom looked back up at him, he saw Indigo clambering all over his face and body. The scavenger was flailing his arms about trying to get her off.

"Indigo, what are you doing?!" Clearsight shouted. "That thing can break your neck!"

Fathom's talons dug into Darkstalker's scales. _Please, no._

"I'll be fine," Indigo said as she squirmed out of the scavenger's grasp and sunk her talons into his leg. "Go and find somewhere to hide with Darkstalker. Once the scavenger loses track of you, I'll teleport out of here. Now move!"

Clearsight and Fathom picked Darkstalker up and scurried off into the woods without another word of protest. The two of them had their eyes fixed on Indigo and the scavenger, though. "Is she going to be okay, Clearsight?" he asked.

"I think so," Clearsight assured. "She looks like she knows what she's doing."

"But you said she could break her neck," he said. "Didn't you see that happening?"

"I see a lot of things, Fathom," she said. "She knows how dangerous that scavenger is now, and she's being careful. Almost all of the futures I see end in her survival."

Fathom moaned. "I'd really prefer it if it were all of them," he said.

They circled around a tree trunk and found a cavity between a pair of roots. Just as they started to take shelter between them, Darkstalker spoke again.

"Clearsight, what's going on?" he asked, his voice scarcely more than a murmur.

"Darkstalker, cover your head with your talons and say, 'get me out of here'," Clearsight told him pressingly.

Darkstalker winced and put his hands over his forehead. "My head…" he muttered. "Get me out of here."

At once, Darkstalker disappeared. Relief washed over Fathom, and he leaned back against the tree bark, exhausted.

"Indigo, Darkstalker's back at the palace!" Clearsight shouted. "Get out of here now."

"Understood!" Indigo responded. "Get me out of here!"

The scavenger shouted something in surprise.

Clearsight covered her head and teleported back to the palace, and Fathom soon followed. When he reappeared near the golden goblet on Darkstalker's desk, he glanced around pensively to make sure that everyone was actually there.

Listener, thankfully, hadn't gone back to the scavenger den, and was there when they all returned. She and Clearsight hugged each other as Listener apologized for chickening out. Indigo wasted no time retrieving her whale tooth spear that leaned against Darkstalker's bedpost, and attentively returned to Fathom's flank.

Darkstalker was shaking and disoriented, lying curled up on the floor with his talons on his head and his face locked in a tight wince. Clearsight was already at his side trying to help him stand. He was bleeding from nose to horns, and huffing with every exhale. "I feel like my head's being crushed by a boulder," he moaned. "Where's my emerald bowl?"

"It's over here, next to the fountain," Clearsight said, leading him out of Darkstalker's bedroom and into the main room of his suite. Fathom and the others followed them as they made their way to the fountain, which was bubbling idly, reflecting the muted light coming in from the balcony. On the ledge of the fountain was a gold bowl studded with emeralds.

Darkstalker filled the bowl with water from the fountain, drank from it, and sighed. He dipped his face down into the fountain water and washed it off. When he turned to face his friends, not a single scratch was left on him. "Well, that was exciting," he said with a chipper ring in his voice.

Fathom felt like he'd just been betrayed. He looked at the bowl in Darkstalker's talons as if it were a slaughtered hatchling. "That's another enchanted item," he said.

Darkstalker looked down at his bowl and pursed his lips. "It is," he admitted. "I enchanted it to heal anyone who drinks from it."

"Darkstalker, how many times do I need to tell you this?" Fathom asked, pinning his ears sadly. "You said that you were going to stop using your magic frivolously, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did," Darkstalker said, setting the bowl aside and scowling at the ground. "And if it were up to me, I would be keeping that promise."

"What do you mean?" Indigo asked. "It is up to you, isn't it?"

Darkstalker shook his head. "Queen Vigilance has been getting bolder with me ever since she moved me into the palace," he said. "She has been demanding that I make enchanted items for her to help with the war effort."

Fathom went stiff. Memories of Queen Lagoon and Albatross thundered through his mind. The orders Lagoon had imposed on Albatross, the stress that she'd put on him to use his animus magic as much as he could, the constant focus on his powers and enchantments — these were the things that helped accelerate Albatross' deterioration. His grandfather's soul might not have been so badly broken if Queen Lagoon hadn't forced him to use his magic as much as he did.

And now Queen Vigilance was doing the same thing to Darkstalker.

"I _know_, Fathom," Darkstalker said, breaking him out of his mental trance. "I don't like it either."

"You can't let her do this," Fathom said desperately. "Please Darkstalker, stop making enchantments for her. You can't let her destroy your soul — even if you think it might be protected."

"I can't just stop," Darkstalker said begrudgingly. "But I've been trying to minimize the harm. Clearsight has been keeping a closer eye on the futures where my soul is in danger, and I've been doing what I can to keep Vigilance from asking for new enchantments too often." He grinned mischievously. "Right now, she's convinced that my magic takes time to build up. I told her that it can take weeks or even months to prepare a new spell after making the last one."

"That was pretty close to what Albatross was doing for Queen Lagoon," Indigo said. "Darkstalker, you can't keep doing this — not with enchantments like this. If the other things the queen requested are like the ones you put on this bowl, then they can really hurt you." Fathom looked at Indigo, a little startled. She'd never sounded this worried about Darkstalker before.

"I'm afraid there's not much else I can do," Darkstalker said. "If I don't do what she wants, she could have me arrested. And trying to convince her that she's putting my soul in danger has been next to impossible. It's hard for her to consider what my spells might be doing to me when her mind is so preoccupied with her boring new idea for a spell."

"Could I talk with her?" Fathom asked. "Maybe she'll start listening if another animus dragon asks her to stop."

"I doubt she'll listen to you, but you can try," Darkstalker said. "I'll let her know that you request an audience with her the next time I see her."

Fathom smiled, relieved. "Thank you. I'll try to get her to stop, Darkstalker. For your sake."

Darkstalker dipped the bowl into the fountain again and lifted it back up. "Did anyone else get hurt?" he asked. "We might as well make use of this before Vigilance decides to keep it all for herself."

"I think we're all alright," Listener said. "What about the scavenger? Did he get hurt?"

Indigo shook her head. "He was perfectly fine when the rest of us teleported away."

"Good. At least we didn't burn their entire village to the ground."

"Indeed," Darkstalker said cheerfully. "I'd consider our little visit a success."

"You're joking," Listener deadpanned. "Darkstalker, you ruined the sanctity of their peaceful community! Now they know that invisible dragons are watching them."

"First of all, yes, of course I'm joking. Secondly, you can't blame me for that," Darkstalker said defensively. "I grabbed the scavenger's attention completely by accident. All I did was lean forward a little bit, then I stayed completely still the moment he was looking at me. Why should I have expected it to throw a rock at me like that?"

Listener didn't seem to have anything to say in response to that, but she still looked like she wanted to remain angry. "I need to get home," she finally said.

"Did you at least have fun?" Darkstalker asked, smiling a little.

"No!" Listener shouted, flaring her wings. "I was terrified!"

"Well, I found it exciting," Darkstalker said. "I wasn't able to hear everything that was happening, but I could feel the adrenaline rushing through my body. I could only imagine how thrilling it was for you guys."

Fathom found himself secretly agreeing with Darkstalker. He hadn't had a genuine adventure in such a long time. The spirit that he once had had gotten completely swallowed by fear the day Albatross went mad. But Darkstalker was trying to give Fathom that spirit back, and he was pretty sure it was working. And just like pretty much everything else Darkstalker was doing, he was really appreciating it. If Darkstalker or Listener asked him to come back and use this enchanted goblet a second time, he'd probably say yes.

But on the other talon, that was _dangerous._ He was trapped in a world where his species wasn't the apex race, and where everything had the potential to kill him. What if Indigo had gotten hurt, and Fathom had to use his magic to keep her safe, and he started turning evil as a result? What if that rock had killed Darkstalker? And besides, this was _animus magic_ he was messing around with. Wasn't he kind of condoning the use of Darkstalker's magic by letting himself have fun with that goblet?

"Look, I'm tired," Listener said. "I need to get home and get to bed."

"I agree with Listener," Clearsight said. "It's been a long day."

Fathom rubbed his eyes and yawned agreeably. Even though he'd adopted a NightWing sleep schedule a long time ago, his body seemed naturally resistant to it. His body had forgotten that he was supposed to be asleep when he was watching the scavengers, but it was reminding him now — now that he was shrouded under the ceiling of the palace instead of under the bright blue sky.

He knew that he wasn't sleeping as much has he had been when he was in the Sea Kingdom last year, but that was probably a good thing. When he was in the Sea Kingdom, he never had anything better to do with his life, so he stayed in bed for sixteen hours a day just to burn time. He'd take being friends with Darkstalker over that any day, even if it meant being a little sleep-deprived.

"Alright," Darkstalker said. He picked up the goblet and handed it over to Listener. "Have a good sleep, Listener."

Listener took it from him and nodded. "Thanks, Darkstalker."

Once she was on her way out of the palace, Fathom turned back to Darkstalker. "I should probably be going back to my chamber as well."

"Hold on," Darkstalker said. "Before you go, I want to talk to you for a moment, alone."

Fathom was startled at first, but soon after nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay with that. Indigo?"

"That's fine," Indigo said, standing up and stretching. "I'll see you back at the suite."

That was the third time Indigo had surprised Fathom that day with her attitude towards Darkstalker. When she walked away, he realized that this was the first time that Indigo willingly let Darkstalker alone with Fathom.

"I wasn't expecting that to go that smoothly either," Darkstalker said to him. "Maybe she's finally warming up to me."

"I hope so," Fathom said. "Thank you for being so patient with her."

Darkstalker picked up his emerald bowl again and started tapping the surface of the water in it, making little circles that spread out to the edge of the bowl. "You know she's only hard on me because she cares about you, right?"

"I know," Fathom said. He sat down and began fidgeting with the claw on the joint of his wing. "We've been friends ever since I can remember, so she's kinda protective. But she does have a good heart."

"How come you haven't told her how you feel yet?" Darkstalker asked.

Fathom snapped to attention, his heart racing. For just a second, he stared wide-eyed at Darkstalker. Then Darkstalker gave him a knowing smile and pointed a talon at the teardrop scale next to his eye. Fathom sagged his body. "Right. Of course you know that."

"I really think you should," Darkstalker told him. "Would you like to know how she feels about you?"

"Absolutely _not_," he said sternly. And it wasn't because he was afraid she didn't feel the same way about him. He just hated the idea of delving into someone's thoughts without their consent — especially someone like Indigo. He knew that NightWings saw it differently, but he'd never be comfortable with it. Indigo's mind belonged to her: nobody else should listen to it without her letting them.

"Alright," Darkstalker said with a shrug. "I'm just saying, I think it'd go over well for you if you did."

"I don't want the rest of the Night Kingdom to know about how much she means to me," Fathom explained. "As far as the NightWings are concerned, she's just my bodyguard."

"Oh, let the Night Kingdom know!" he said joyfully. "Let the NightWings know that you're in love and happier than all of them because of it."

"Darkstalker, you don't understand," Fathom said. "Indigo and I can _never_ be together. If were were, Queen Pearl would have us separated the moment she found out."

"Well, it's a good thing Queen Pearl isn't here in the Night Kingdom with you. She doesn't need to find out." Darkstalker sighed. "Fathom, look, you know you're not going to be truly happy until you decide to be with her for the rest of your life. You may as well make that decision now." He walked over to Fathom and handed the bowl to him, letting some of the water splash onto the floor. "Don't worry about the consequences. You're with the NightWings, Fathom: you're in _my_ kingdom. And as long as you're in my kingdom, I promise that I'll do whatever I can to keep you two together."

Fathom smiled at Darkstalker, feeling a lot better hearing that. Taking the bowl, he raised it to his maw and took a drink, washing down an odd bitter taste that was starting to coat the back of his throat. Despite knowing that the water was enchanted, it didn't make him feel any different. "I'll think about it," he said tentatively.

"I hope you do," Darkstalker said. "Now go on and get some sleep."

He nodded to Darkstalker and returned to his chamber. The palace was quiet during the morning — everyone was asleep or away. His talons echoed against the dark marble columns and mirrors until he heard the soft chirping of birdsongs that came in from his chamber balcony.

Indigo was waiting for him when he stepped in. Her face lit up like a lantern in the middle of a pitch black island cave once she saw him, and he couldn't help but smile back, feeling a little nervous. "How'd your little talk go?" she asked quietly, as Wharf and Lionfish were busy snoring in the corner of the room.

"It was nice," Fathom said as he walked across the hall into their bedroom. "Thanks for letting us talk by ourselves."

Indigo tilted her head and followed him. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you've been on his case ever since we moved in here," he said. "I wasn't expecting you to leave us alone together."

"Oh." Indigo folded her ears, looking ashamed. "Yeah, I guess I've been letting my guard down around him, haven't I?"

"I think that's a good thing," Fathom said, brushing his wing with hers. "Haven't I been telling you that this whole time?"

"I know," Indigo said. "You're probably right. But I still feel like someone needs to keep an eye on him."

Fathom stopped in his tracks and gave Indigo a sideways glance.

Indigo turned around to face him, raising a brow at him. "To be clear, I still don't think we should totally trust him," she said. "It's bad enough that you probably already tipped him off that we're friends."

Fathom winced. "Yeah, he — he definitely already knows that."

Indigo face-palmed. "Great. That's just absolutely wonderful."

"We actually talked about that quite a bit when we were alone."

Indigo pinned her ears. "Fathom, I get that you like him, and I get that you think he's on our side. But can't you at least _try_ to keep some of your secrets?"

"I _did_ try. But he's a _mind reader_. He probably knew we were friends the day I arrived here. He probably knows how much you mean to me more than you do."

That last part came out suddenly and without any level of thought, and he immediately regretted saying it the moment he saw how Indigo's face transformed. Her eyes lit up with curiosity and excitement, and then they softened as she gave him an impish smile, and then she took a step towards him — and he started feeling really, really happy, and no no no no, he was _not_ ready to feel that right now!

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" she asked him.

"I … probably am," Fathom said — even though he _wanted_ to say, _'Please ask me again later when I know how to answer that question without worrying about what's going to happen.'_

And he sat down on the carpeted floor — even though he _wanted_ to scurry to his bedroom and order Indigo to do the same.

And Indigo touched her nose to his, and Fathom smiled in a way that let her know that he thought she was the most beautiful and brilliant dragon who had ever come into his life, and he never wanted to spend another moment without her by his side — even though he _wanted …_

… even though he wanted to act exactly like this whenever she was with him, and it made him feel like the tiniest sea slug in the ocean whenever he held back.

"I thought so," she said, brushing her cheek against his and resting her head on his shoulder. "You were being kinda weird about it, though."

"I love you, Indigo," he affirmed, letting go of anything else that mattered to him.

"You're the only reason I'm here, you know," she returned. "I was so miserable when we were separated in the Sea Kingdom. And I knew that I'd keep feeling miserable if I didn't come here with you. That's why I begged Queen Pearl to let me be your bodyguard." She lifted her head and looked at him, her eyes glistening like they were hiding the brightest stars in the sky. "The feeling's mutual, Fathom. I love you too."

They spent a long while staring at each other, accepting each other's love, realizing how long they'd both been waiting for this and how much they both wanted this. He couldn't remember a time in his life when he was this grateful to be alive.

Perhaps there'd be consequences to this that he wasn't ready for, or unhappy compromises he'd have to make. But in this moment, he didn't want anything about his life to change. In this moment, he couldn't have asked for a better world.


	14. Chapter 13

**o**

**CLEARSIGHT**

Two glorious years passed.

With each passing day, she found herself focusing less and less on the future, and more and more on this incredible and delightful present. And this shift in focus wasn't because Darkstalker had finally convinced her to stop stressing over the outcomes she saw. It was because the outcomes she saw stopped being stressful. They grew brighter and more exciting. Darkstalker was good, and he was _staying_ good. He was never angry, never resentful, and never demanding. He still had that ambitious twinkle in his eye, but his ambition always seemed fueled by wholesome desires. He was exactly the type of dragon that Clearsight had fallen in love with.

At the same time, however, there was something ominous growing in the cauldron of her clairvoyance. It wasn't a dark future or a violent outcome or anything concrete. It was an abstract, obscure warning: an alarm bell that told her that soon, she was going to have to make a difficult choice.

At first she thought that this difficult choice would be her marriage. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that she'd either marry Darkstalker or marry nobody. The harder question was _when_ she would tie the knot with him.

But it wasn't _that_ much harder of a question. Darkstalker's first suggestion was that they get married on Clearsight's seventh hatching day — in other words, as early as was legally possible in the Night Kingdom.

Clearsight's parents gave Darkstalker their blessing, even though they felt that the two of them ought to wait a little bit longer. But Clearsight already felt impatient enough waiting for her seventh hatching day. She didn't want to wait any longer than that! She wanted to get married _now!_

She actually looked quite extensively through all of the futures to find a possible avenue she could take that led to an earlier marriage. However, there weren't any that didn't involve an unnecessary eloping or an awkward betrayal of the Night Kingdom, so Darkstalker's first suggestion ended up being the only suggestion.

Clearsight chose Listener as her dragoness of honor, and Darkstalker chose Fathom as his best drake. The wedding took place in the palace garden, and was attended by the entire royal court — including Queen Vigilance herself, although she appeared to be incredibly bored the entire time.

It was a night of no regrets and unbounded happiness. She woke up the next afternoon in her new bedroom with her new husband, and she felt like she was the luckiest dragon that the world would ever know.

But that alarm bell was still there in her visions. She heard it growing louder. Her decision to wed Darkstalker — that wasn't the choice her powers seemed to be dreading.

Perhaps, she then figured, the decision she'd have to make had to do with Fathom's marriage rather than hers. He and Indigo wanted to get married — now more than ever, after being a part of her own wedding with Darkstalker. But Queen Pearl was even more paranoid than Fathom was about animus magic. To her, marriage led to dragonets, and dragonets led to the possibility of more animus dragons in the royal bloodline. Hence, she would never let Fathom marry, even though he'd already promised never to father any hatchlings.

"Why don't you just get married here?" Darkstalker asked Fathom the night they had this discussion. They were walking down the streets of the market town south of the palace, looking for new decorations to add to Darkstalker and Clearsight's new suite when the topic had been brought up.

Fathom tilted his head. "Here? You mean, here in the Night Kingdom?"

Darkstalker nodded. "You pretty much live here already. You might as well have a marriage ceremony here too. You don't have any plans on going back to the Sea Kingdom any time soon, do you?"

"I'm going to have to eventually," Fathom said. "One of these days, Queen Pearl is going to send me back."

"If she let you stay here for this long, then she's probably not in any hurry to pull you back into the Sea Kingdom."

"I don't think you know how hard it's been to keep it that way," Fathom told him. "She never expected me to stay here for this long. I don't think anyone has. I know for sure that Wharf and Lionfish have been ready to go back home for years now. They kinda hate this job."

Clearsight looked behind her at Lionfish, who was tailing them from a couple of flanks away. He looked bored out of his wits, and was staring glossily at them.

"Indigo and I would love to send them back, but my sister wants them to stay with us," Fathom went on. "At any rate, if I get married here, then my sister will still find out. Once she finds out, she has her excuse to take us back to the Sea Kingdom and split us up."

Fathom was right about that. According to every future Clearsight saw, Queen Pearl would demand Fathom to return home the moment she found out that his affair with Indigo was as serious as it was. She hadn't yet found a way to make sure their happy futures were secured.

"If you do get married, it should be in secret," Clearsight suggested. "We can make the ceremony somewhere private, and you'll only invite the dragons who know about your relationship."

"What would be the point of that?" Fathom asked. "If it's not recognized by a royal crown, then it's not really a marriage."

"It'd still be a marriage to us," Clearsight said. "There won't be any legal bindings, but you could still exchange vows and celebrate your commitment to each other. That's the part of marriage that matters to you, right?"

Fathom stopped for a second, smiling at the thought. "Yeah, I guess it is. That'd be nice."

"I like the thought of it as well," Darkstalker said, brushing his wing against Fathom's and smiling at him. "We could wed you two at that spot on the beach that the both of you love so much. You know, where you carved that wooden NightWing for Clearsight?"

Fathom's face lit up. "Yes! That would be perfect. Indigo would love that."

Darkstalker beamed. "The tides should be calmer next week. Should we schedule the ceremony then?"

"Next week it is, then!" Fathom said. "I'll go talk to Indigo about it. See you guys back at the palace!"

Fathom flapped his wings and took to the sky. His bioluminescent scales were brightened up with infatuated emotion, making him look like a little green star as he flew higher and higher. Further behind him, the vanishing silhouette of another dragon — which Clearsight assumed was Lionfish — tailed him back.

"I think I'm going to go back to the palace as well," Clearsight said to Darkstalker. "Vigilance is going to want another report from me by morning, and I haven't gotten anything started yet."

"I'll go find something to eat and meet you back in our suite," Darkstalker said. He tapped Clearsight on the nose with his own and added, "See you soon, my sweetheart."

She leaped into the air and flew off, feeling the gentle tug of the nightly breeze against her wings.

When she returned to her office in the palace, she lazily spent about half an hour scanning her brain for military updates to present to the queen. By the time Clearsight filled out a length of scroll, she figured that Darkstalker had probably just returned to the palace. She'd be pleased to let him know that she finished all of her work before he got the opportunity to distract her.

Her mind drifted back to Fathom and Indigo as she made her way to the throne room to deliver her report. She still wanted to hold onto the promise she'd made to them before she turned back time. After taking away their happy future, she owed them a happier one.

Plus, their futures were just so much fun to explore — particularly the bright ones. There were so many ways their lives could be fulfilled. She saw futures where Fathom decided to break his vow to Pearl and have several beautiful dragonets with Indigo. She saw futures where Fathom was welcomed back to the Sea Kingdom where he happily settled down with Indigo, forgiven by the new queen that ruled. She saw futures where he opened up his own wood carving shop in the Night Kingdom and spent the rest of his life here.

She let her mind dig into those futures again and let them fill her with wholesome joy. She always loved being reminded of the paths that were in store for her SeaWing friends.

But when she looked ahead, she couldn't find those paths anymore.

Clearsight stopped in the middle of the corridor, confused. _That's weird,_ she thought. She closed her eyes and looked harder, further into the future, concentrating all of her attention on Fathom's future. For some weird reason, they were gone. Fathom and Indigo were completely gone.

Okay, that was worrisome. Those futures _were_ there before: Clearsight saw them on her wedding night, which was only a few days ago. Did something happen?

She tried looking ahead to earlier times. Instead of looking at the layout of Fathom's futures five years down the line, she tried looking ahead just one year. Still nothing. So she tried one month. Again, nothing.

Panicking now, she stood in the shadow of a marble column and went through the most likely futures for Fathom after each day. The first few days were fine, but after about a week, something important happened. Fathom got a letter from Queen Pearl demanding his immediate return. A few days after that, he'd be gone from her and Darkstalker's life forever.

That was the likeliest future now. In fact, it wasn't just the likeliest: it was practically _guaranteed._ She couldn't see anything in the entropy of the timelines that pushed their lives back on-course. If she didn't do something _soon_, then the two of them would be doomed.

_What happened?!_ she screamed internally. _What did I do wrong?_

Clearsight hurried into the throne room. She took two steps forward before Vigilance gave her an impatient snarl, and Clearsight promptly stopped and bowed low. "I have your war report, Your Majesty," she said, rising slowly.

Her eyes scanned the queen's court. The usual dragons were there, but so too was Lionfish, standing at Vigilance's shoulder. He was situated in such a way that suggested he was whispering something in her ear.

"I'll send out a messenger to the Sea Kingdom at sunset," Vigilance said quietly to Lionfish. "Head back to your chamber, now."

As Lionfish stepped down from Vigilance's side and made his way out of the throne room, a chill ran down Clearsight's spine. He gave Clearsight a nervous look as he passed her, then hurried to the door.

_It was him._

Her mind was absent from the reality in front of her those next couple of minutes. She vaguely remembered handing the scroll containing her report to Queen Vigilance, followed by her requesting that she join in on a war meeting tomorrow to discuss the report in greater detail, followed then by Vigilance casually dismissing her. She stepped out of the throne room feeling dizzy, doing everything she could to confirm her suspicions by looking at the futures that lay ahead of them.

Indeed, they were confirmed. When Clearsight studied the outlandish future where Darkstalker killed Queen Vigilance _today_, Fathom and Indigo were safe. Their futures remained intact, and Queen Pearl never demanded their return. The only reason their future had changed so suddenly was because now Queen Vigilance knew about the two of them.

And the only reason Queen Vigilance knew about the two of them was because Lionfish _just_ told her.

This was bad. This was so very bad. She had to figure out what to do _right now_: there wasn't a second she could waste.

The first thing she decided was that all her friends needed to know. Darkstalker and Listener knew about and supported Fathom and Indigo's relationship: she had to let them know what was happening. Maybe if she got them all together to talk with Fathom and Indigo about this, they could find a way to stop it from happening.

Darkstalker, as expected, was waiting in their room in the castle, boredly watching the fountain in the center as it stirred up the water. He turned his head and raised his ears when he heard her approaching. "Clearsight!" he said, rising up to his feet. "You're back early. How was — oh no, what happened?"

"Queen Vigilance just discovered Fathom's secret," she said. "Lionfish was listening in on the conversation we had in the market and told her everything. If she delivers the message to Queen Pearl — "

Darkstalker's eyes widened. "_No,_" he whispered. "All those years we spent trying to make him happy…"

"We still have some time to figure out how to stop this," she said, pacing impatiently. "Vigilance won't send any messengers out until sunset."

Darkstalker nodded. "I didn't want to sleep tonight anyway," he said, making his way to the door. "Let's go talk to Fathom and Indigo."

"I'm going to go fetch Listener," Clearsight told him. "She's one of the only other dragons we can trust."

"Meet me at my parents' house, then," he said. "These walls have ears. We don't want anyone else listening."

Clearsight cantered to the balcony and threw herself into the air. She caught a light current and used it to turn around, making her way towards Listener's neighborhood. The first grays of early dawn were just beginning to lift the stars from the sky.

As Listener's house came into view, Clearsight ran through the immediate future in her head. She confirmed that Listener was at home and awake, which was a relief. She wouldn't have had time to go looking for her if she wasn't around.

She landed on Listener's porch and prepared to open the door, before changing her mind and knocking instead. "Listener, are you here?" she asked, despite knowing the answer already. "This is really important."

Listener opened up a few seconds later. She tilted her head and eyed Clearsight suspiciously. "Are you overreacting over a new future or something?"

"This one is really serious," Clearsight insisted. "Fathom's in trouble."

When Clearsight explained the entire situation, Listener appeared much more concerned. "How can I help?" she asked.

"We need to come up with ideas on how to stop this," Clearsight said. "Everyone else is at Darkstalker's parents' house right now."

"I'm on it," Listener said as she darted past Clearsight and began flying.

Clearsight quickly followed after her. "You know that we're probably going to be staying up all day to figure this out, right?"

"That's fine," she answered, tilting her head slightly to let Clearsight hear her better. "Sleep is for the weak."

The morning sun was just creeping over the mountains when Clearsight landed at the front of the house. When she walked inside, everyone was already seated in the living room — including Darkstalker's family. Fathom, Indigo, Whiteout, Arctic, Foeslayer, Darkstalker — and now Clearsight and Listener — were all there.

Something fluttered in her head. That difficult decision that her mind had been warning her about — it was coming.

"Are we sure there's no way to talk Queen Vigilance out of sending Queen Pearl that letter?" Indigo asked.

"I'm afraid so," Darkstalker said. "Vigilance doesn't want Fathom in her palace anymore. She's been looking for an excuse to kick him out for months."

"Why?" Listener asked. She found a pair of open cushions beside Whiteout and sat down next to her. Clearsight took the remaining free seat beside her and listened thoughtfully.

"As far as she's concerned, Fathom is no longer useful and she's tired of providing for him," Darkstalker said pointedly. "Unfortunately, she agreed to keep Fathom in her palace until Queen Pearl requested his retrieval."

"I've definitely been getting that impression," Fathom agreed. "I don't think Vigilance can be persuaded."

"Just kill the messenger," Arctic said coldly. "What matters is that Queen Pearl doesn't know about your little romance. If you can't stop the message from being sent, then stop the message from being received."

"Remind me again who invited _you_ to join in on this discussion," Darkstalker said, shooting a scowl at his father.

Arctic grit his teeth at his son. "You did," he said. "When you decided to storm our house with all your friends."

"I think Arctic and I have an important perspective here," Foeslayer said, looking between her son and her husband. "He violated the will of his tribe by falling in love with me, and Fathom is violating the will of his queen by falling in love with Indigo."

"Do you think we should try killing the messenger too, Foeslayer?" Fathom asked.

"Certainly not!" she answered. "You can't catch a NightWing messenger. They're fast, they're strong, and they're invisible in the night sky."

"Not to mention it's completely immoral to kill the messenger for just doing their job," Clearsight added, a little surprised to hear Foeslayer not say something similar.

"How about this?" Listener started. "When Queen Pearl arrives to pick Fathom up, we hide him using my goblet. They'll never find them as long as they stay tiny and far away. And they can come back when Queen Pearl stops looking for them."

Fathom and Indigo looked tentatively at each other, then back at Listener. "I don't think I could survive being tiny for that long," he said to her. "But it's a good back-up plan."

"That future doesn't look like it'll play out very well if we go that route," Clearsight said, scanning those possibilities as fast as she could. "Fathom would most likely become a fugitive in both the Night and Sea Kingdoms. He won't just be able to return here with Indigo."

"Maybe you should follow the queen's orders when they arrive," Foeslayer said. "If you beg her to let you revoke your vows, she might be forgiving."

Clearsight sighed. "That's probably too optimistic," she said morosely. "I can't be entirely sure about what will happen between Fathom and Indigo, but I can at the very least guarantee that if that if Pearl brings Fathom home, Darkstalker and I are never going to see him again."

"_No,_" Fathom said firmly. "That can't happen."

"It _definitely_ can't," Whiteout agreed, looking and sounding more thoughtful than Clearsight had ever seen her. "The magicians have become a cyclone of energy. Any attempt to untangle them now will result in a terrible thunderstorm."

There was a worrying period of silence — one where everyone wanted to come up with the next idea but where nobody had any left. _This can't be it,_ Clearsight whispered to herself. _This can't be the way it ends. Not with everyone just sitting and waiting for Fathom's life to get destroyed._

She could feel it coming. The tension, the phantom anxiety, the sense of dread — it was converging, it was building. This couldn't be the end of the conversation, if only for that reason. Her clairvoyance was screaming at her, insisting that she was going to have to make a critical decision _soon_. But she couldn't figure out what it was.

_Why can't I figure it out? What are you trying to tell me?!_

"So," Fathom started, "we can't talk Vigilance out of delivering the letter, we can't intercept the message, we can't let Queen Pearl see the message, and we can't run away and hide from her forever." He shook his head and sighed. "Why did you have to betray us, Lionfish?"

"I'm going to slaughter that conniving eel once I see him again, believe me," Indigo growled.

There was another three heartbeats of silence.

Then, Darkstalker spoke.

"Is there a reason we're not considering the obvious solution to this problem?"

Every pair of eyes was now on him. Clearsight held her breath, her clairvoyance shaking her like a leaf.

"What do you mean?" Indigo asked. "There doesn't seem to be any obvious solution here."

"Sure there is," he said. There was an ambitious twinkle in his eye. "Look, there's a deeper problem here. Fathom, Indigo — you two have managed to stay together for this long, but you were never able to walk on thin ice like this forever."

"I know," Fathom said, folding his ears. "This was bound to happen eventually, wasn't it?"

"_No,_" Darkstalker said firmly. "This only happened because you two live in a Kingdom that rejects your love. You need to live in a Kingdom where the queen will accept you two, or else you'll never be together the way you deserve to be."

Clearsight's heart froze. _Not this. Please not this._

"So, we should leave the Night Kingdom?" Fathom guessed.

"_No!"_ Darkstalker snapped, rising to his feet.

"Wait, that doesn't sound so bad," Fathom argued. "We could find an island in the Rainforest Kingdom — one that'll be close enough for you guys to visit."

"How can you not see what needs to be done?" Darkstalker's tail flicked once, then he stood straighter. "It's not the _Kingdom_ that needs to change. It's the _queen_."

Clearsight could see the scales on everyone's backs stand a little straighter. She could feel hers snapping down, as if she were trying to make herself as small as possible.

"Queen Vigilance doesn't deserve the NightWing throne anymore," he continued. "It's time for a new queen to take over."

Then he looked at his wife — his soulmate — the dragon who was supposed to love him and trust him every step of the way — and the dragon who feared him again for the first time in years. And he said:

"I nominate Clearsight."

* * *

**A/N:** Sit tight! The next chapter will be up very soon!


	15. Chapter 14

**o**

**DARKSTALKER**

"Wait, WHAT?!" Clearsight shrieked. "I don't want to be queen! I thought _you_ were the one who wanted to rule the NightWings."

"I've _thought_ about ruling the NightWings," Darkstalker said, choosing his words carefully. "But I never wanted to do it without you ruling beside me as queen. You would certainly make a better ruler than Vigilance."

"I would _not,_" Clearsight said firmly. "I'd die of stress after a year."

"But you'd have your future sight to help you make the right decisions," Darkstalker argued. "And remember: I would be ruling with you. The burden of responsibility wouldn't be placed entirely on your back."

"This option isn't on the table, Darkstalker," Arctic told him. "First of all, we don't have any way of assassinating Queen Vigilance. Secondly, protecting Fathom isn't worth betraying the NightWing tribe."

"_First of all_," Darkstalker retorted, "we _do_ have a way of assassinating Queen Vigilance. Three dragons in this room have animus magic. One is willing to use it."

"_Definitely_ not," Indigo said, rising to her feet. "Fathom would never let you use your magic to kill Queen Vigilance — even if it meant protecting us."

_Right,_ Fathom thought, nodding in agreement. _I wouldn't … or would I?_

Hmm, interesting. Fathom was actually quite comfortable with the fact that he was willing to use his magic to protect him. He could definitely use that to his advantage. A quick scan of the minds of everyone else in the room suggested that nobody liked his idea yet (except for maybe Whiteout, who was always impossible to decipher), but perhaps with a bit of discussion, they could be persuaded.

"I wouldn't even need to enchant anything new," Darkstalker said to Indigo. "Do you really think I haven't enchanted anything capable of killing a dragon yet?"

Indigo narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Why would you need an enchantment like that?"

"For the same reason Queen Pearl thought that Fathom needed you," Darkstalker said. "We need protection from dragons who might want to hurt us. Vigilance never gave me my own personal bodyguard, so I had to take measures into my own talons."

"Which you shouldn't blame him for," Arctic said to Indigo. "_You_ threatened to kill him the day you met him, after all."

Darkstalker almost thanked his father for speaking in his defense like that.

"I never had to use the weapons I made to hurt anyone," Darkstalker added. "But I still have them. We can use them now if we have to."

"No," Foeslayer said, shaking her head. The look on her face and the thoughts in her mind actually made Darkstalker feel a little guilty. "Darkstalker, dear, you can't kill the queen. What your father said is right: protecting Fathom and Indigo isn't worth betraying the tribe."

"Mother, I wouldn't be betraying the tribe," Darkstalker said sincerely. "I'd be saving it. We have been at war with the IceWings for eleven years now. With Clearsight and me at the head of the Kingdom, we can finally put an end to it."

"I find that _extremely_ hard to believe," Arctic said. "Your existence is the reason we're still at war in the first place. I could end it right now by sending your severed head back to the Ice Kingdom."

"I can see the future and I _know_ that I'm right about this," Darkstalker refuted, summoning every ounce of self-control in his body to ignore his father's pathetic excuse of a threat. "Clearsight, back me up on this. You see how quickly the war can end with us on the throne too, right?"

Clearsight was quiet for a moment. Her eyes were closed as she finally started exploring the same threads he'd been exploring for years. "He's right," she finally said, opening her eyes. "There's a peace treaty on the horizon if Darkstalker kills Queen Vigilance and we take the throne." She sounded like she was reluctantly making a confession, which put a bitter taste in the back of Darkstalker's throat.

"Case in point," Darkstalker said, smiling encouragingly at her regardless. "This isn't just about saving Fathom from his sister. This is about bringing order back to the Night Kingdom. This is about keeping the IceWings and NightWings from hating each other for the rest of our lives."

Whiteout's eyes suddenly lit up.

"But we don't need to kill Queen Vigilance to end the war," Clearsight protested. "Darkstalker, please: don't go down this path. We can figure this out without stealing power from the royal family."

"Can we?" Darkstalker asked. "Or can we just push our problems a couple of years down the road while Vigilance continues to send more NightWings to their deaths?"

"I'm with Darkstalker," Listener said.

There was a brief moment of silence in the room as Listener's comment was digested. Darkstalker lifted his ears, pleasantly surprised. Listener had been quiet and contemplative this whole time; for a moment he'd forgotten she was there. Her mind had been whirring slowly, lingering on each point each dragon had made instead of immediately responding to any of them. A quick judgment from her mind verified to Darkstalker that he now had an ally.

_One down._

"Y-you are?" Clearsight asked, baffled. "Do you realize what Darkstalker's saying?"

"Of course I do!" Listener said. "Clearsight, you and Darkstalker are two of the smartest and most generous dragons I know. If I could choose any two dragons to be king and queen of the Night Kingdom, it would be you."

"But I don't _want_ to be queen," Clearsight said. "I don't know how to lead a tribe."

"Yes you do," Darkstalker said warmly. "You've been leading this tribe your entire life. That's why you spend so much time worrying about it."

"I spend so much time worrying about the things _you_ could do to it," Clearsight shot back. "Things like you taking over the Night Kingdom and usurping the throne."

"Is that really a fundamentally bad thing, though?" Listener asked. "If Darkstalker would make a better king, then let him take the throne."

"Even if it meant murdering the queen?" Clearsight said.

"Yes! So what if we need to kill Queen Vigilance to do it? Is there anyone in this room who doesn't hate her guts?"

The three heartbeats of silence that followed were absolutely delectable. And the words that broke it were even more so.

"Down with the queen!" Whiteout announced. "My allegiance lies with my brother. Let him weave blacks and whites into the Kingdom of Stars."

Darkstalker smiled proudly at his sister. _Two down._

"I don't know," Fathom said, fidgeting with his talons. "Is it really a good idea for an animus to rule over a Kingdom?"

"I think so," Listener said. "Leaders have to be powerful, right?"

"But a powerful leader isn't always good," Indigo said, her tone still rife with hostility. "A powerful leader can be corrupted, and Fathom and I have _seen_ that happen. Animus dragons aren't meant to rule kingdoms."

"That is _completely_ untrue," Arctic said with a scowl. "The Ice Kingdom has had animus dragons for centuries, many of whom took the throne and ruled the kingdom without any issue." His eyes glided over to his son. "The difference, however, is that they had a _right_ to their throne, given to them through blood. _You_ have no such thing."

"I don't?" Darkstalker said. "That's strange; last I checked, my father was a prince."

Arctic barked out a laugh. "Tell that to the NightWing royals. I've lived here for eleven years now and not _once_ has any dragon here treated me like the royalty I am."

"But that's their problem, not yours. If I don't have the right to rule that's granted to royalty, then you don't have the right to a royal title." He let slip a shrewd smile. "Although, that would change if I were king, wouldn't it? Because if _I_ officially became king, then _you_ would officially become prince. And you would take back all the royal titles and privileges you left behind when you came here."

That stopped Arctic right in his tracks. He kept his posture cold and rigid, and Darkstalker listened in on his mind as it began began whirring. _That's true, isn't it?_ he thought._ I may have a lousy excuse for a son, but if he were king, I'd be royalty again._ He didn't like the idea of being beneath his child in the hierarchy of royal power, but he liked it more than the idea of being a walking trinket for Queen Vigilance.

_Three down. You don't need to admit it out loud._

Foeslayer still seemed a bit too uncertain about the danger involved with overthrowing the royal family. She was afraid of Darkstalker getting hurt or killed, or drawing too much attention to her family. And even though she didn't like Queen Vigilance, she was reluctant to the thought of conspiring against her like this.

However, she was considering the possibilities. She knew first-hand how difficult it was to work under Vigilance. She knew how incompetent she was at times, and how prone she was to impulsively provoking bloodshed. She knew how if weren't for Clearsight, they probably would have lost the war by now. "Can you really end the war if you become king?" she asked her son.

"It would be over in a month," Darkstalker said. "Right now, Queen Diamond's main obsession is you and Arctic. She's fighting our tribe because the only animus heir they had ran away with you and joined us."

"I never meant to betray them," Arctic quickly said, sounding extremely bitter.

"Queen Diamond wants reparations, but she'd be willing to renegotiate terms with me on the throne. We'd be able to end the war in exchange for Arctic's safe return to the Ice Kingdom."

"Wait, hold on. I wouldn't agree to those terms," Foeslayer said. "Arctic and I are married. I don't want him leaving for the Ice Kingdom without me."

"You wouldn't be apart forever," Darkstalker said. "Arctic would be a prince of the Night Kingdom _and_ the Ice Kingdom. He would be free to travel between the kingdoms once our tribes are on friendly terms. Whenever he comes back, he can see you again."

"I would be happy to agree to those terms," Arctic said. "I'd certainly prefer it to being trapped here for the rest of my life."

Foeslayer frowned, looking between Arctic and Darkstalker. "Maybe this is for the best," she murmured, lowering her wings.

_Four down._

Fathom was on the verge of teetering over as well. He was wrestling between the trust he'd gained of him over the years and the lingering fear he had for animus magic. It should only take a gentle nudge in the right direction to bring him on the other side.

"What exactly are you worried about, Fathom?" Darkstalker asked him. "I thought you had a lot of faith in me and Clearsight."

"What? No, I do," Fathom stuttered. "But isn't it possible that something can happen? What if becoming king causes you to start using your powers more? And what if that starts to eat away at your soul?"

"I will keep you and Clearsight by my side at all times, Fathom," Darkstalker assured. "You've always been good at reminding me that my powers are dangerous. I won't let myself forget it."

"I know," Fathom said. _I've known that for a long time._ "You're not dangerous. I — … I think you should be king."

"You too, Fathom?" Clearsight said, looking all the more mortified.

"Maybe this isn't such a bad idea after all," Indigo added. "If Fathom agrees too, then maybe a King Darkstalker can actually work out. But only if Clearsight rules alongside him."

_Six down._ Only one dragon was left.

"_We're_ not supposed to rule the Night Kingdom!" Clearsight shouted. "That wasn't ever supposed to happen."

"But it _should_ happen!" Listener told her. "You're basically doing the queen's job already. Even before you started working for Vigilance, you've been trying to do whatever you can to keep the Night Kingdom from getting destroyed."

"Yes, and I've been doing that by trying to keep Darkstalker away from the throne," Clearsight said.

Oh moons, that stung.

"Do you have _no_ faith in your husband?" Listener asked, sounding genuinely offended on his behalf. "You've always been like this with him. Darkstalker is such a good dragon, and yet you've never seemed to give him your trust."

Clearsight stiffened up. "How _dare_ you!" she snapped. "Of course I trust Darkstalker! I haven't worried about him or his soul in years."

"Then why don't you trust him now?"

"Because _now_ he's asking to become king of the NightWings."

"Which _everyone_ here supports except for you."

"Well, you _shouldn't._" Clearsight's eyes darted worriedly from one dragon to another, as if she were looking for someone who would agree with her. "Look, I've seen what happens when Darkstalker takes the crown. I've seen the terrible things that can come out of it. This is _exactly_ what I've been trying to avoid because all of the worst futures ahead of us come from Darkstalker becoming king!"

Darkstalker thought for a second. He had to think quickly though, because he could feel the others starting to grow doubtful.

That didn't sound right. That _couldn't_ be right. Surely there were futures where he ruled benevolently. _Those_ futures were the ones that he could see more clearly than all the others. The other futures where he turned tyrannical — those ones were but tiny shadows in the sea of possibilities before him. He didn't understand why Clearsight couldn't see the good ones.

Or … could she? Maybe she'd been ignoring them this whole time. Maybe she simply never thought they were worth exploring.

"Clearsight, how many of those futures have you really _looked_ at?" he asked. "Have you ever tried searching for _good_ futures where I become king?"

Clearsight shook her head. "Every time a future filled with death and destruction crashed through my mind, it was your face at the front of it all. I've never seen anything good coming out of those threads."

"Try looking again," Darkstalker said. "Please, Clearsight. Not all of those futures are bad. I promise you'll find the good ones if you open yourself up to them."

Clearsight closed her eyes for a few moments, and Darkstalker stepped up in front of her. He desperately wished she would take off her bracelet and let Darkstalker peer into her mind as she searched through all the futures. He wanted to point her in the right direction. He wanted to let her know which paths she needed to explore to find the best outcomes. He wanted to give her the unconditional faith in him that both of them had always wanted.

She opened her eyes and said quietly, "I don't know, Darkstalker. This could go wrong so badly and so easily. I'm _scared_. It's been so long since I've been this scared."

Darkstalker gathered her talons in his. "You don't have to be," he said. "Please, Clearsight. This is something I've wanted for both of us since before we even met. I know I can avoid those futures you're scared of. I _especially_ know that I can do it with you ruling beside me."

He could see tears forming in her eyes. He could see how she was still so afraid, so unsure. He could see how risky and dangerous this choice was going to be.

_But she knows that I _can_ rule with a good heart._ As long as she had faith in him, Darkstalker knew that she'd be willing to give him a chance.

"Okay," she said softly. "We can take the Night Kingdom. Just promise me you'll be more careful now than ever before."

"You have my solemn word, Clearsight," Darkstalker said. "I'll never let you down."

In the fabric of time, a thread began to glow.

* * *

**A/N:** You know how the Wings of Fire books are all split into three parts? I'm not explicitly doing the same thing for this story, but if I did, this would be the end of Part I. We're well into our new timeline, and during these upcoming chapters, you're going to see the points of focus change.

Since I've hit something of a checkpoint in this story, I'm much more eager to hear your thoughts. How do you think I'm doing so far? What do you think has been going well in the story? What do you think needs improvement? What are you hoping to see while we step into this next leg of the journey? What are your impressions of the way I'm handing the characters? What unanswered plot questions are you dying to know the answer to, and what could you really care less about? I always love reading your reviews, and I'm looking forward to sharing future chapters of this story with all of you lovely people!


	16. Chapter 15

**o**

**CLEARSIGHT**

The rest of that day was the greatest trial of mental fortitude that Clearsight had ever faced in her life.

The choice to put Darkstalker to sleep in the last timeline was bad. It took more inner strength than she thought she'd had at the time. But at least it didn't last very long. She'd waited for about half an hour for Darkstalker to see her at Agate Mountain, and their interaction lasted no more than a few minutes once he was there.

And at least she had known that there was a second chance waiting ahead of her: that after she'd betrayed her soulmate, she could find her enchanted watch and turn back time. She was able to cope with what she had to do, because she was acting in a world that would certainly be left behind.

She did not have either of these luxuries afforded to her this time. Darkstalker wasn't going to kill Queen Vigilance for another two hours: he still had to prepare an assassination plan, and determine how to proceed from there in order to give Clearsight her title as queen. She had to sit and watch as this uncertain and terrifying future played out in front of her. And of course, she had to be there to help Darkstalker figure everything out.

"Are there guards stationed in her sleeping chamber?" he asked her. He was slouched against the kitchen table, keeping track of the ideas and plans they'd gone through by scribbling them down on a leaf of paper. They had all agreed to not leave Darkstalker's parent's house until they either came up with a full plan or they ran out of time to do so.

Clearsight shook her head. "None are inside her room. But there'll be two guards standing outside her door that you'll have to get through. There's no other way inside."

"And is there any way to get through them without killing them?"

"I don't know," she said shakenly. "I can't tell you unless you figure something out. Darkstalker, I really don't know about this."

"I'm sorry, Clearsight." He looked up at Clearsight and placed a talon on her shoulder. "Trust me: this is going to lead to a brighter future. I know this road we'll need to take isn't very pleasant, but the ends are going to justify the means. Now please, help me with this: I don't want to have to kill anyone other than the queen, but I _need_ your guidance for that."

Clearsight fought back the urge to let her mind gallop into dark, sinister futures. She held back her tears and nodded.

Darkstalker smiled at her. He then turned his head towards Listener. "Listener, did you ever get the scavenger sized goblet back from the village like you said you would?" he asked.

Listener nodded. "It's been collecting dust in my room ever since those SkyWings destroyed their den."

"Good, I can use that to sneak into her room," he said, scribbling down another note on his paper. "What about her daughters? Are their rooms guarded?"

Clearsight closed her eyes and looked ahead. "They won't be an issue," she said.

"We can wake them up early, then," he said. "They'll be summoned to the throne room an hour before sunset, while everyone else is still asleep." He tapped his talons on the table ponderously, then said, "Indigo, what do you want to do with Lionfish?"

"I want to _kill_ him," Indigo said sourly.

"Do you _actually_ want to kill him?" Darkstalker pressed. "Because we'd need to make a lot of arrangements _right now_ if you're going to do that."

"No, we don't," Fathom said for her. "Lionfish just wants to go home. He doesn't deserve to die."

"He knew what he was doing," Indigo refuted. "He betrayed us just so that he could rope us back to the Sea Kingdom; he deserves what's coming to him. And even if we wanted to keep him alive, he'd just flee back to the Sea Kingdom at this point and tell Queen Pearl herself."

"If he's killed, dragons are going to start asking questions," Darkstalker told her. "What are you going to tell Wharf when he finds out his friend has been murdered?"

"I'll figure something out," Indigo murmured.

"No, you won't," Darkstalker said. "You can't kill Lionfish without Wharf suspecting you, and you wouldn't have a convincing reason for killing him if you tried to explain yourself."

"What should we do, then? Kill him too?"

"I've already said that Vigilance is the _only_ dragon I want killed tonight," Darkstalker said firmly. "I suggest we send Wharf and Lionfish home under the condition that Lionfish is not to tell anyone about Fathom and Indigo."

"And what would hold him to that promise?" Indigo asked.

"Threatening to kill him if he breaks it should suffice," Darkstalker told her. "He would know better than to try deceiving an animus dragon who's married to the best seer in the world. We'd know if he were going to lie before he gets the chance to reveal your secret."

Clearsight's eyes flashed. Visions swam to the front of her mind of them approaching a waking castle, of arrests being made and alarms being sounded before this plan could be fully executed. They were losing time.

"Darkstalker, we need to go soon," Clearsight told him.

Darkstalker looked at the clock on the living room wall, hanging above the family portrait that Whiteout had painted. It was nearly mid-day. "Ah, snakes," he cursed under his breath. "You're right: we need to get to the palace now. Listener, I want you to go home and get both of your goblets. Take them to the palace, and meet me and Clearsight in our chamber. Make sure nobody sees you with them."

"Will do," Listener said. She rose from her seat cushion and made her way to the door.

"Wait — before you go," Darkstalker suddenly said, rising to his feet as well. "Are you sure you want to follow through with this? Supporting me is going to be risky. Do you really want to be a part of the web of politics and scandal that I'm diving into?"

"Absolutely," Listener said confidently. "You deserve to be king, and Clearsight deserves to be queen. I'd be happy to accept the consequences of helping you get those titles."

Darkstalker smiled brightly. "Your friendship means more to me than you know," he said. "You will be rewarded for it, I promise. Now get going: we'll be waiting for you."

Listener nodded and took her leave, as Darkstalker brought his attention back to the others. "Whiteout," he said, "I want you to stay here with mom and dad. You'll be safer here than in the palace."

"I know, dear brother," Whiteout said, her voice soft yet confident. "We shall stay in our den of secrets until your moon rises from the shore. In the meantime, I must prepare a new portrait! It will be covered in jewels. Beautiful, elegant jewels of all colors, surrounding two royal diamonds in the center. Oh, how brightly the diamonds will shine, brother! Would you like it to be hung in the palace when it is done?"

"Of course," Darkstalker answered, beaming at her. "I wouldn't want it to be anywhere else."

"Then go out and fly," she said. "If these hours ever come a second time, you will not get to use them the same way."

"I will use them wisely," Darkstalker said. He brought his eyes over to Clearsight now, and she felt her heart flutter with all the same emotions she felt when he'd first laid his eyes on her, all those years ago. Fear, excitement, nervousness, unrelenting and painful love … it all came flooding back to her.

"Clearsight," he said, taking her talons and holding them gently, "will you stay by my side? Will you be with me until we're done with all this?"

Clearsight shrunk down, fear and stress cornering her like a caged scavenger. "I don't know, Darkstalker. I don't know if I want to be there to see it when you ..." But her visions were already corrupting her memories, telling her what she would be missing if she ever chose to leave Darkstalker's side later today. She saw the queen's lifeless body, broken from its peaceful sleep by Darkstalker's swift assassination. She felt the cloud of terror that would come with watching her die.

"But I _need_ you, Clearsight," Darkstalker insisted. "I need you to give me strength and guidance. Please, I can't do this without your support."

_Yes you can,_ she thought. _The queen will die whether I'm there with you or not._ Regardless, she took Darkstalker's words to heart. She was there to share Darkstalker's burdens. And so, without a word, she nodded to her husband.

Darkstalker gave her a smile of relief. "Thank you, my love. Now, let's fly."

At last, Clearsight and Darkstalker left the house and took to the sky, their eyes set on the palace. Fathom and Indigo took their rear, staying as close to each other as Clearsight was to Darkstalker.

She was tired, and the air felt thick as her wings cut through them. Her muscles tugged against her brain, as if they instinctively wanted her to turn back, or land in the shadows of the ravines beneath her. With each wingbeat, she found it harder to actively look into the future. Every time she did, phantom worries came in place of true visions.

She was so afraid and confused, and the throes of sleeplessness began to take away the brain power needed to handle that confusion. The future that lay ahead of her was one that she thought she would never allow, and yet its march forward was inexorable. She wasn't prepared. She'd never planned this far ahead.

They flew in through Darkstalker's open balcony, which was only barely large enough for a dragon to land on. Once the four of them were inside, they immediately headed to Fathom's chamber to confront Lionfish. Darkstalker and Indigo took the lead, marching briskly down the hall.

There was a fury in each of their eyes, but they read different things. Darkstalker had intense, calculating black eyes behind his scowl — one that he'd worn many times in the past. It was his raw ambition bleeding through, and it signalled through his march that he was going to get what he wanted and nobody was going to stop him.

Indigo, on the other talon, was straight-up _furious_. Her soul was boiling with rage, and she was fully prepared to let it out on the dragon who'd summoned it in the first place. If the futures Clearsight saw were any indication, poor Lionfish ought to be very afraid of her.

Darkstalker opened the door to the SeaWing suite, and the others made their way in. Lionfish was sleeping in the far corner, close to the curtains that hid the balcony. He woke to the sound of Fathom locking the door behind him, and when he saw the look on Indigo's face, he immediately leaped into the air and scrambled towards the balcony exit.

With impeccable reflexes, Indigo charged at the fleeing SeaWing. She pounced on him like a bloodthirsty panther as he tried to throw open the curtains. A heartbeat later, the curtains were torn and Lionfish was pinned to the balcony ledge, mere milliseconds from falling over and winging away.

"Just let me go, Indigo!" Lionfish squeaked out, his jaw being pressed hard against the concrete parapet by Indigo's front legs. "There's nothing you can do, okay?"

"Oh, there _definitely_ is," Indigo said. Her claws curled around his face, digging into his scales. Lionfish let out a yelp of pain.

"Bring him back in," Darkstalker said, his voice booming.

Clearsight shuddered at the sharpness of his command. There was so much authority behind that voice. _He's acting like he's already king_. Her wings shrunk into her body as she recalled the visions she had where he used that regal voice for much more sinister commands.

Indigo did as Darkstalker asked, and dragged Lionfish back into the chamber, pulling him by his horn. Behind the fallen curtains there was a sliding glass door, which Fathom cantered to and closed as well.

Lionfish was thrown onto the floor in front of Darkstalker, and made no efforts to escape once he was let go. He simply rose to his feet and kept his wings tucked. "So you figured out what I did," he said plainly. "What are you going to do, kill me? Pearl would have wanted to know this, Fathom, you _know_ that."

"I know. We were _trying_ to keep it a secret," Fathom said pointedly. His face was rife with hurt — like he didn't have it in him to be genuinely angry, but he knew that he had a right to be.

"So I'm the bad guy for being loyal to our queen, and you're the good guy for breaking the vow you made to her?" Lionfish asked.

"I haven't broken _either_ of my vows, Lionfish," Fathom retorted. "I never promised that I wouldn't marry Indigo. I promised that we would never have dragonets, and that's a promise I'm going to keep!"

There was a brief moment that Clearsight caught where Indigo glanced down at her claws, looking wounded. It was gone in an instant, though, and she straightened herself right back up.

"Look, Wharf and I just want to go back," Lionfish complained. "We miss the Sea Kingdom. We miss our old friends. We were never supposed to be here this long, Fathom. It's time for us to go home."

"I don't _want_ to go home," Fathom said sharply. "Why would I want to go back to the Sea Kingdom? Everyone there hates me. Nobody even wants to _look_ at me." He shook his head. "I feel more at home here than I ever could in the Sea Kingdom. This is where I belong."

At some point during their argument, Wharf had gotten up from his bed. Instead of trying to escape on his own, he slowly made his way over to them and stood beside Lionfish. Lionfish looked back at him and gave him a thankful smile. He then looked back at Fathom and said, "Whether you like it or not, we're done being trapped here. Queen Vigilance will be sending a messenger out at sunset, and it'll only be a matter of time before it reaches Queen Pearl."

"Queen Pearl is not going to receive that message," Darkstalker said, stepping towards them. "We're going to make sure of that."

"How?" Lionfish asked, stepping backwards nervously as Darkstalker advanced. "Short of killing the queen before she wakes up, there isn't anything we can do to stop her."

"I'm an _animus_, Lionfish: there are more possibilities than you might think." He straightened his head, so that it loomed over Lionfish and Wharf's. "Now, with that being said, there still remains the issue of what we'll be doing with you."

Lionfish and Wharf glanced at each other, confusion and uncertainty and fear rising in their eyes.

"Listen carefully," Darkstalker said. "We will give you _one_ chance to go home, under the promise that you will not tell anybody else about Fathom and Indigo."

"Done," Lionfish said instantly. Clearsight could see a small slice of his nervousness being cut from his scales. "You have my word."

"Mine too," Wharf appended. "But … there's a problem—"

"—Yes, I know there is," Darkstalker said. "How am I supposed to know if you break your promise or not? You'll be in the Sea Kingdom, around Queen Pearl, and I'll be in the Night Kingdom, on the other side of the continent." With slow and methodical steps, he walked over to the fountain bubbling in the middle of the room. "Don't worry about that, you two: an animus dragon has his ways."

At that, he reached into the fountain and pulled out a pebble. "Pebble," he announced with dripping wet talons, "if Lionfish or Wharf are about to break the promise that they just made to me, I enchant you to start glowing a bright, radiant blue. Moreover, if you are glowing a bright, radiant blue, I enchant you to kill Wharf and Lionfish instantly when you are submerged in water."

_Oh, that is both clever and cruel,_ Clearsight found herself thinking. Darkstalker's scroll was still a closely guarded secret between Fathom, Indigo, and herself, so Lionfish and Wharf wouldn't know that this enchantment was a bluff.

The blanched look that swept over both of their faces confirmed that.

"There we go. That should keep you from trying to rescind your oath to me," Darkstalker said. "Now get out of here, the both of you."

The two SeaWings fidgeted and shrunk away from Darkstalker, but neither of them moved from where they were standing.

"Did you not hear me?" Darkstalker growled as a flash of white reflected in his glower. "I said _leave_!"

"We can't," Wharf said, his voice warbling now. "Our orders are to stay and protect Fathom."

"Is it not obvious by this point that Fathom has revoked that order?"

"It's not Fathom's order to revoke! If it was, we would have asked him to let us go home a long time ago." Wharf pinned his ears and looked down. "Queen Pearl made it clear to us that Fathom doesn't have the power to send us back to the Sea Kingdom. If we go back now, and we don't have a _really good reason_, she's just going to send us right back — probably with even more guards than before."

"Queen Pearl is already suspicious of you two," Lionfish said to Fathom and Indigo. "I think the reason we were sent here with you and Indigo in the first place was because she didn't like what would happen if you went by yourselves."

Fathom and Indigo exchanged an awkward smile between each other that Clearsight suspected meant, _'Yep, Pearl was totally right to think that, and it's a good thing she was.'_

A couple of heartbeats of silence passed as Darkstalker thought of what to say next. Before he could give any further instructions, however, Indigo left Fathom's side and walked up to Lionfish. "I hope you know that I planned on killing you for what you told Queen Vigilance," she said once she was close enough to bite him. "Darkstalker talked me out of it. He's the one who's giving you this opportunity to escape here with your life. You should be thankful to him for that."

"I am," Lionfish stuttered, his head vibrating with nods. "I'm sorry. I _want_ to leave you alone; I've wanted to for a long time! I don't care what goes on between you and Fathom, and I don't care about this stupid kingdom! If I could fly back home with Wharf, I would, but there's nothing I can do!"

"I know," Indigo said. "But there's something _I_ can do."

Without warning, she leapt at Lionfish and tackled him to the ground, moving so swiftly that for a heartbeat she merely looked like a fuzzy ball of sapphire scales. She pulled out the concealed dagger she had strapped beneath her wing, and stabbed Lionfish in the shoulder. A wail of pain escaped his jaws.

"Lionfish!" Wharf cried.

"Indigo, what are you doing?!" Darkstalker roared, trotting up to her.

He was the only other dragon that moved from where he was standing. Everyone else — Clearsight included — merely stood in shock, as if afraid that they'd get stabbed too if they tried to move.

Although it was a small dagger, it penetrated deeper into Lionfish's arm than any bite or claw strike could, which became evident when Indigo pulled it out of his arm. The blade was covered in blood and bioluminescent fluid, and the patch of glow-in-the-dark scales on Lionfish's shoulder grew faded and discolored. He tried scrambling away from Indigo, but she pinned his wings and straddled him to keep him from squirming.

"There's your reason for returning," Indigo said sharply. "Tell your queen that Lionfish got stabbed while trying to protect Clearsight from a thief. None of the medics here knew how to treat stab wounds on bioluminescent membranes, so he needed to go all the way back to the Sea Kingdom for proper treatment. Now hurry up and _get out of here._"

Indigo got off of Lionfish, who immediately scrambled for the balcony. He struggled a bit to open the door, wincing from pain as the blood pouring out of his shoulder began sliding down his forearm. Once he'd gotten it open, the fallen curtains in front of the door were smeared with blood, and Lionfish threw himself into the sky, leaving a red talonprint on the balcony floor. Wharf followed right behind him.

And then there was silence. Fathom took shallow, shocked breaths, and Clearsight remained frozen in place, terrified that this spontaneous attack might give rise to consequences she didn't yet foresee. That was not a calculated move on Indigo's part: Clearsight would have seen it if it were. It was impulsive and unplanned, and so it was more well-hidden in the threads of fate.

Indigo used the curtain to wipe the blood off of her knife, then put the knife back in its sheath. "That's that problem taken care of," she said coldly.

Darkstalker slowly walked up to her side and looked out the balcony. "So their story when they get back is going to be that Lionfish was stabbed, and the only way for him to get treated for his wounds was to fly across the entirety of Pyrrhia?"

"They can say whatever they want when they get back," Indigo said. "I just wanted to cut that useless traitor."

"Let's just hope that doesn't backfire on us," Darkstalker told her. "I doubt either of them are going to be too friendly with you for the foreseeable future."

"I'll worry about that later," she said back pointedly. "Why don't you leave me and Fathom alone for now? You have a queen to take care of, and I have a mess to clean up." She gestured towards the blood smears and stained curtains.

Darkstalker appeared as if he wished to protest further, but decided to simply leave her and Fathom be. He left their chambers and made his way towards the room that he and Clearsight shared on the southern side of the palace. Clearsight loyally followed right beside him, her tail curled around his.

"You're starting to see them, aren't you?" Darkstalker asked, tilting his head so that he could smile at her.

Clearsight cocked her head, confused. "See what?"

"The good futures that lie ahead of us," he said. "Now that you're letting yourself enter this path, you're starting to see that it will soon become infinitely better than you imagined, am I right?"

Clearsight looked away and hummed, feeling guilty for what she was about to say. "Not exactly," she admitted. "My visions haven't been overwhelmed with future memories of happiness yet. But they also haven't been overwhelmed with the evil and darkness I was afraid of all this time. I might just be too tired to see things properly. I'm sorry."

Darkstalker sagged a little bit. "I see…"

"I am still afraid, Darkstalker," she said pensively. "Right now, all I can do is hope that you truly will be a good king. I can't remember the last time I had so little guidance from my visions."

"With you by my side, I will be the greatest ruler Pyrrhia has ever had," Darkstalker said, extending a wing and hugging her with it tightly. Clearsight leaned into him. His touch reminded her that she really did love him, and that she would support him despite everything. It was the only moment of relief she'd been given so far.

Listener was waiting for them in their chamber, equipped with both enchanted goblets — one normal sized, the other smaller than a thimble.

"I got here as fast as I could," Listener said. "I don't think I roused any suspicion. My parents are still asleep."

Darkstalker smiled brightly at Listener, trotting forward to inspect the goblets. "Excellent," he said.

"What are you going to use them for?" she asked. "I know you said you'd use it to sneak into her chamber, but how is it going to help, aside from making you smaller?"

"Stealth," he explained as he turned and approached his wardrobe, which harbored a number of enchanted jewelry items. "Remember how we were neither seen nor heard by the scavengers when we were spying on them? Well, with the way I wrote the spell, we shouldn't be seen or heard by other dragons either. And, since we'll be extremely small as a bonus, we should be able to find a way into Vigilance's sleeping chamber without catching anyone's attention."

"I see," Listener said, tapping the goblet and making it ring. "But how are you going to kill the queen if you're so tiny?"

"With this." Darkstalker produced a long, black leather tailband. From a distance, it looked innocuous enough, but Clearsight remembered reading the enchantment Darkstalker had put on it and being very upset with him. She'd made him promise never to wear it unless he foresaw extreme danger without it, which was a promise he'd gracefully kept, until now. Seeing him take it out of his wardrobe for the first time in years made her shiver.

"When I wear this tailband, it makes my tail deadlier than a SandWing's," Darkstalker explained as he brought it over to the others. "If I deliver a sharp, intentional strike with my tail against another dragon, they will die instantly. It should work even when I'm very small. Clearsight, would you put it on for me?"

Even a menial request such as that sent the same jolts of fearful apprehension through Clearsight's muscles. She didn't even want to _touch_ that tailband! She wanted to help Darkstalker overthrow the queen as little as possible, and deal with the consequences later. Supporting Darkstalker with this, not _knowing_ if it would lead to the fury and destruction that her visions had warned her about since she'd first hatched — that was a mental commitment that she'd never be prepared for.

But it was a commitment she'd made when she married Darkstalker. He was always going to take her into unknown territory; she knew this. In fact, she embraced it most of the time, letting herself grow attracted to his tendency to surprise her in ways that no other dragon possibly could. Being his wife meant accepting and loving this part of him, even when it scared her.

And so, she continued to support him. Taking the tail band in her own claws, she tied it around the base of Darkstalker's tail, wrapping it snugly, turning him into the perfect weapon for assassination.

Darkstalker gently swinged his tail to get acclimated to the feel of the tailband on his body. "Feels good," he said. "Now let's go, Clearsight. We still need to do a couple of things after the queen is dead."

Listener placed both of the goblets on the ground and let Darkstalker and Clearsight approach them. Darkstalker closed his eyes and exhaled into the larger bowl. For a second Clearsight worried that Darkstalker's tailband wouldn't shrink with him, but Darkstalker had apparently thought of that when he wrote his enchantment: he and his tailband vanished instantly.

A few seconds later, Clearsight exhaled into the golden cup as well. She lost her balance a bit as the floor suddenly changed beneath her, but the transformation was otherwise swift and painless. With a few flaps of her wings, she was in the air, and now that she was under the effects of the enchantment, she was able to see Darkstalker waiting for her on the edge of the fountain.

"Remember: the way to return to normal is to put your talons on your head and say 'get me out of here'," he reminded her once she was by his side. "Now go on and lead the way. I have no clue where the queen sleeps."

And so Clearsight took the lead, winging to their chamber door and exiting out through the hallway. They glided high, staying closer to the ceiling than the floor, as Clearsight did a quick search algorithm in her head to find where in the palace the queen's sleeping chamber was.

One thing that neither Clearsight nor Darkstalker had considered was how fast they could move. Since they were the size of hummingbirds, they flew a lot slower than they normally did at full size. Their top flight speed was on a par with the pace of a walking dragon. Fortunately, the palace halls were designed for a dragon to walk through and not fly through, so they made their way to the queen's corridor in a matter of minutes.

She found the door behind which Vigilance would be sleeping, which — aside from the two burly NightWings covered in armor guarding it — appeared no less innocuous than any of the other doors. It had the same thick, dark oaken front panel that her own chamber had, with the same marble door frame and the same cast iron doorknob and lock.

The two of them thoroughly scanned the perimeter of the door but found no open spaces that they could crawl through. Instead, Darkstalker went for an alternative plan. He landed on the doorknob itself, clutching it tightly. Then, he thrashed his body around as he held it, causing it to rattle and move.

"What are you _doing_?" Clearsight asked frantically.

"Trying to get the guard's attention so that they open the door," he growled through his efforts. "He'll think that someone's inside and check to see what's going on. Stay close by: they probably won't keep the door open for long."

She nearly realized too soon what Darkstalker meant when he said that. The first guard flicked his ears, then looked down at the rattling doorknob, and Clearsight just barely had enough time to tell Darkstalker to get out of the way before he began to reach for it. Darkstalker leaped into the air, his tail mere millimeters away from brushing against the guard's talon.

He landed atop the door frame, and Clearsight landed beside him. Since the rattling had stopped, she wasn't expecting this to actually work. The guard was rumbling something that Clearsight couldn't understand, and didn't appear to be getting any response.

But to her surprise, he soon thereafter reached for his keys and unlocked the door. He cracked it open, and Darkstalker and Clearsight scurried in through the opening like a pair of hungry rats, perching themselves atop the inner lip of the door frame with their tails wrapped around their legs. Clearsight just barely had enough space to keep herself from falling over.

The queen was laying atop a massive bed with many layers of silken sheets, and at least a dozen black pillows. Her wings and tail were tucked in and her head lay on a large cushion at the head of the bed. She was slightly awake, scowling at the doorway as she growled something at the intruding guard.

A few seconds later, the guard closed and locked the door, and Clearsight let out a breath that she'd been keeping in. Once Vigilance tucked her head back into her bed sheets and drifted back to sleep, Darkstalker swooped over to her bed and landed ever-so-gently on her shoulder. Clearsight followed suit, slowing herself down as much as possible with her wings before any of her tiny talons touched the queen's scales.

As she settled down beside Darkstalker, she looked at the sleeping queen. And although she didn't appear to notice that either of them were standing on her, Clearsight could still feel her adrenaline climbing with every heartbeat. Even in sleep, Vigilance looked ferocious, as if she were dreaming about mutilating IceWing prisoners. She was so massive too — large enough to be able to swat the both of them like gnats if she'd woken up and noticed they were there.

"Here it goes," Darkstalker murmured, before lifting his tail.

The scariest part of standing atop Queen Vigilance at that moment was knowing that that _could_ happen. There were visions, faint and unlikely but definitely there, where Darkstalker hesitated for too long, or moved too much before striking her with his tail, and Vigilance woke up, sensed them, and crushed them with a smack of her talon, killing them instantly.

_I wouldn't be able to turn back time if that happened,_ Clearsight realized. _The universe would be stuck with this timeline because Darkstalker and I would be dead. Nobody else knows about my watch._ That wasn't a mistake she could undo.

Of course, the rational side of her recognized that this wasn't something she needed to worry about. Darkstalker was right there, prepared to end Vigilance's life instantly. This was something he'd been planning for — something he'd apparently wanted for years. He wouldn't hesitate to kill her now. He had everything he needed: the motivation, the support, and the opportunity. All he needed to do was flick his tail.

… So why was he hesitating?

She still felt Vigilance breathing beneath her. Darkstalker's tail was still raised. For some reason, he looked … doubtful.

"Darkstalker," Clearsight whispered. "Just do it."

Darkstalker's breaths grew long and deep. He drew his gaze towards Clearsight, his eyes desperate. And, as if he knew _precisely_ the right words that he was supposed to say to torment her more than he already had, he said to her:

"I don't think I can."


	17. Chapter 16

**o**

**DARKSTALKER**

What was wrong with him?

_What was wrong with him?!_

The queen was right there, sleeping soundly, ready to die by the simple touch of his tail. And yet when he _saw_ her beneath him, knowing that he was about to kill her … he couldn't seem to bring himself to actually do it.

He tried, over and over again. He hyped himself up and sent the signal to his tail to throw itself down and hit her. But it was as if his tail had been struck with paralysis. When he flexed his tail to whip it down, his brain undid the motions.

"Darkstalker, please," Clearsight whimpered desperately beside him. "This isn't the time to be having second thoughts."

"I'm — but, I'm not," Darkstalker said hesitantly. "I want this. I _know_ I do."

"Then kill her," she said, terror rising in her voice. "Hurry up and get it over with!"

"I _can't,_" he said, folding his ears.

"Fine, then get out of here!" Clearsight demanded. "We're in trouble, Darkstalker. We're going to die if she wakes up and notices us."

"_No_, I need to kill her!" Darkstalker said. "I'm trying to do it. It's just … something's stopping me."

He didn't understand this. Was he feeling guilty at the thought of killing his queen? Why? He _wanted_ her dead. He was _justified_ in wanting her dead. This was to protect Fathom and Indigo. This was to bring peace to the NightWing tribe. This was to take power away from a terrible queen and give it to the best queen any dragon could ever ask for. His reasons for killing Vigilance were benevolent. He _knew_ this. Even his friends all agreed with him about this.

_Just do it,_ he told himself. _Don't feel bad for her. She had this coming. If you don't kill her, one of her daughters will. Hit her._ Darkstalker lifted his tail, summoning the last of his confidence. _Hit her!_

And before his body could protest — before he had the opportunity to hesitate for a second longer — Queen Vigilance opened her eyes.

At once, Darkstalker's eyes widened, and without a second thought his tail thumped down against the queen in a panic.

And as quick as that, it was all over. The queen fell limp. Her mouth slowly opened, and her eyes began to roll back into her head. Her breathing — which had been gently lifting and lowering him and Clearsight as they stood atop her shoulder — now ceased.

Darkstalker relaxed. There was a part of him that was expecting remorse to start settling into his chest. Maybe it was the same part that had kept him from swinging his tail sooner — that insisted that maybe there _was_ something wrong with ending the queen's life, even though it couldn't articulate _why_ it was the wrong thing to do.

But as he looked now at the lifeless queen, he felt no remorse whatsoever. His misgivings vanished with the queen's life, and now all that was left was the sweet taste of victory.

Folk songs and old tall stories often cited that in death, dragons looked peaceful — as if they were sleeping, dreaming innocent nothings. If this were the case, Vigilance was an exception. She looked bitter and twisted as ever. The only difference was that now, with her jaw hung open and her eyes half-closed, she looked powerless too. Completely powerless, for the first and last time in her life.

A soothing tingle began to rise up his legs. His thumping heart softened, and relief thundered into his soul. He closed his eyes and smiled. And then he laughed.

All that stress, all that tension, all that preparation — _finally_, it paid off. Vigilance was dead. He finally killed her. Soon, her power would become _his._

Well, his and Clearsight's. He looked over at his partner to give her a congratulatory smile, only to find that she'd collapsed into a shivering ball. In an instant, Darkstalker changed his train of thought and crouched down to comfort her. "Oh, Clearsight, my dear," he said softly. "It's okay."

She didn't respond. Her eyes were a ghostly gray, and her body was unresponsive. She was having a vision attack; the first one she'd had in years. Darkstalker felt his sympathies fluttering in his heart, but he wasn't surprised this was happening. After all, this was a big decision they'd just made. It was going to change the course of history dramatically.

Darkstalker could only hope that in the hurricane of futures Clearsight saw, she would find some of the bright and dazzling ones that were in store for her.

He held her until her visions subsided, and held her more after that. "My poor sweetheart," he cooed. "I've put you through so much."

"Darkstalker," she said with a crippled voice. "I need you to promise me something."

"What is it?" he asked, leaning into her warm scales and wrapping his wing around her.

"You're going to become very powerful, very soon," she said. "You're going to start demanding more. And if you aren't very careful, you're going to lose sight of yourself in the process. Promise me, Darkstalker: if I ever warn you that things are starting to look bad, _listen to me._ You know that my seer powers are better than yours. If you don't make the right choices, then the future will become hopeless long before you realize it."

"I will always let you be my guide, Clearsight," Darkstalker said. "I made that vow to you the night we got married."

Clearsight stayed quiet, and Darkstalker could tell that she wasn't fully convinced. He had to imagine that there were futures swirling in her head proving to her that this may not be a promise he would keep.

He let her have those worries. They were part of what made her her after all. He remembered a conversation that they'd had a long time ago: _"I need to worry, at least a little bit. You want the dragon who guides you towards the best future to care about her job, right?"_ she'd said. If she needed to spend a few more months, or maybe a few more years, of her life worrying about what could happen, then he'd listen to her worries and let her have them.

But he wouldn't let her define him by the futures she saw. He was going to define _himself_ by the futures he made.

"Now," he said to her, "let's go get our crowns."

After they'd used the enchantment to teleport themselves back to their room and return to normal size, the next order of business was to deal with Vigilance's daughters. This wasn't going to be easy, but all he needed was some diplomacy and charm, and _maybe_ some threatening implications if need be. He ordered Listener to go back to her house, at least for the time being. In the event of retaliation from Vigilance's daughters, he didn't want her to get caught up in the dispute.

After she left the palace, Darkstalker and Clearsight went into the palace corridors and found the nearest guard — whom he instructed to wake Vigilance's daughters and summon them to the throne room for an urgent parley with the queen. The guard obediently marched off towards the princess's corridors, and Darkstalker made his way to the throne room once she was out of sight.

The throne room was empty and unguarded. There wasn't much use in keeping guards situated there, as there wasn't anything worth guarding. The NightWing throne was just a dreary black marble slab with a velvet cushion on it. No dragon would have found it worth vandalizing. And even if anyone _did_ decide to deface the throne, they in all likelihood would have embarrassed themselves quite significantly after being captured and interrogated by a pair of mind-readers.

Darkstalker found it worth sitting on, though. He stood upon it and took his seat, staring down at the open space before him. He spotted Clearsight as she walked up beside him and took her seat next to the throne. _My first order of business as king will definitely be to install a second throne,_ he mused.

A few minutes later, the doors opened. Three female dragons walked in, alone. From a distance, Darkstalker could see a hint of fear in their eyes; worry over what could have possibly provoked their mother into having a word with them in the dead of sunset. But once they saw that it _wasn't_ their mother sitting on the throne, their posture changed and their fears dissolved into a guarded perplexity.

The eldest of the sisters, who led the three of them, tilted her head at Darkstalker. "Where is the queen?" she asked. "And why are you sitting on her throne?"

"Actually, I summoned you here to help me figure that out," Darkstalker told her. "Please, come closer. I don't want to have to shout in order for you to hear me."

They complied, taking many steps toward him. They advanced with a cautious gait, stepping so quietly that their talons couldn't be heard clacking against the ground. "Where is Queen Vigilance?" the eldest asked again.

"She's currently lying dead in her bedroom," Darkstalker said matter-of-factly. "I am sorry for your loss, but we have to negotiate some things before the rest of the palace —"

"She's _dead?!_" the princess interrupted. "How?"

"I killed her, of course," he said, his words slick and sable. "She's been doing a terrible job as queen, don't you agree?"

The sisters looked pensively at one another, silently disagreeing with Darkstalker in their heads — although none of them were bold enough to actually say so in front of him.

"Your names are Acuity, Fury, and Virulence, right?" Darkstalker asked them. "I've made the effort to remember your names, but I'm afraid I don't know who's who."

"I'm Acuity," the eldest answered, her voice shaking. Brand new fears started to rise up in her mind, softening it. "The little one here is Fury, and this is Virulence."

"Well-met, you three," Darkstalker said. "Now, since Vigilance is dead, that means officially, one of you is now queen."

"That would be me," Acuity told him, swallowing hard as ripples of denial and fear slithered through her open mind. "Matrilineal primogeniture. When the queen dies, her first hatched daughter assumes power."

"You were hoping one of your sisters would challenge her before that happened, I suppose?" Darkstalker questioned. "None of you seemed too thrilled with the prospect of becoming queen."

"We just weren't too thrilled with the prospect of dying," Virulence muttered. "Our mother is scary."

"But you _don't_ want to be queen, do you?" Darkstalker asked more acutely. "It's a serious responsibility, having to answer to the entire NightWing tribe. Do you think you're capable of taking your mother's place?"

Acuity's mind flashed through the lectures she'd received as a dragonet about queenly responsibilities and expectations, and she remembered how bored and uncomfortable they made her, and how little she took them seriously. It dawned on her how unready she was for the kingdom to be thrusted on her back.

She shook her head. "Of course not," she said, her voice airy and thin. "I can't — I'm not …." _This wasn't supposed to happen,_ she thought frantically. _ The queen isn't supposed to be killed. Nobody's allowed to kill the queen except us!_

Something suddenly clicked in Acuity's mind. "You're a murderer!" she cried. "You should be executed! Someone get the guards and arrest this traitor at once!"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Darkstalker said firmly, just as Fury began to turn around. "Not if you don't want to be queen. Not if you don't want to be responsible for the dissolution of the Night Kingdom."

"What are you talking about?" Acuity spat. "The queen is dead. Not having you beheaded for killing her isn't going to change that."

"No, but having me beheaded will take away the best option you have for this kingdom," Darkstalker said. "All three of you: abdicate your right to the throne and grant it to Clearsight. She and I will rule over the Night Kingdom instead of you."

The three sisters exchanged looks of shock and disbelief. "So … _that's _why you killed her?" Acuity eventually said to him. "You just murdered our mother in cold blood, and you expect us to just hand the crown over to you?"

"Last I checked, it wasn't too uncommon for the crown to get passed down to the dragon who murdered the queen," Darkstalker commented.

"You're delusional," Acuity said. "We can't let go of our family's claim to the NightWing throne. That would be absolutely preposterous."

"Would it be?" Darkstalker asked. "I am the first animus dragon the NightWings have ever had. My wife is the most powerful seer our tribe has had in centuries. You three, on the other talon, have no powers, no ambition, and no intuition on how to run a kingdom. We would do a far better job managing the tribe than any of you, and I think you all know that."

"What I meant was that we have a family legacy to uphold," Acuity said. "Our bloodline is the first and only of the NightWing tribe. Clearsight wasn't related to Vigilance: the tribe will not consider her a legitimate successor."

"That mindset will change with time," Darkstalker assured her. "Once Clearsight proves herself to be the most capable queen we have ever had, any mutinies that there once were will eventually fall apart. And it won't be as terrible at the start as you might think. Far more dragons in the Night Kingdom know Clearsight's name than yours, after all. If you choose to pass down the crown peacefully, then the rest of the tribe will follow."

The three sisters went silent. As their thoughts stirred, Darkstalker realized that Acuity had accidentally conflicted herself. The pure and honest truth was simply that she didn't like Darkstalker, and she didn't think a dragon who had unjustly murdered her mother should be rewarded with the right to rule the kingdom (which Darkstalker totally disagreed with; he was quite confident that murdering the queen was very just indeed). Acuity pretended that she'd had a less shallow justification for opposing Darkstalker, but Darkstalker refuted the reasons she gave. Which just made her hate him more.

But on the other talon, he'd given her good reasons to forfeit the crown. And she really didn't want to be queen.

"If you choose to abdicate the crown to me and Darkstalker," Clearsight suddenly said with a firm voice, "we will reward your humility and level-headedness by allowing you to challenge us in the future."

Darkstalker had to keep very tight control over himself in order to keep his eyes from bulging out of their sockets.

"If you want to take the kingdom back from us, then defeat me in a duel and it will be yours," Clearsight went on.

Okay, that was _not_ what Darkstalker was expecting from her, and he had very mixed feelings about it. On the one talon, it was nice to hear her speaking in a queenly and official and actually kind of imposing manner. This was what Queen Clearsight sounded like.

But on the other talon, he wasn't exactly thrilled by the thought of Clearsight getting slaughtered by one of Vigilance's daughters. He would definitely rather she be slaughtered by one of their _own_ daughters — and preferably after he and Clearsight had ruled over the Night Kingdom for one or two or three hundred years.

But on the _third_ talon, he trusted Clearsight. She wouldn't say something like this if she actually expected Acuity or her sisters to challenge her any time soon. Maybe Clearsight was simply trying to maximize their likelihood to cooperate with them.

Which it seemed to be doing. Acuity's body language softened, and Darkstalker could practically _feel_ the building sense of surrender in her mind. "Do I even really have a choice?" she asked dejectedly.

Clearsight paused as she tried to think of the perfect answer to that question. Which was taking too long; after several seconds, she started thinking slightly more rebellious thoughts, which was absolutely not okay. He spoke up, answering for Clearsight: "Not if you want the Night Kingdom to survive. Among the four potential queens in here, only one will be able to lead our tribe to victory against the IceWings. The rest, I'm afraid, will probably lead us to extinction. Clearsight and I know which one is which, and we have the future sight to prove it. I think deep down, you know the answer too."

A slight bluff, since he didn't see any indications of extinction in the future. But Darkstalker figured that overplaying their incompetence to them would be better than actually letting them rule. Scratch that, letting them rule would lead to his exile. It was a better alternative to killing them and dealing with a palace that was very, very, very angry with them.

Acuity looked to her sisters for a moment, both of whom looked even more uncertain and defeated than her, then lowered her head, facing Clearsight once again. She prostrated herself and said, "The throne and crown will be yours, Clearsight. If our mother is dead, then I will be given the kingdom before the end of the night. I will abdicate it as soon as it is in my posession."

And then she spoke the most beautiful words that Darkstalker had ever heard in his life:

"May you rule with wisdom, Queen Clearsight and King Darkstalker."


	18. Chapter 17

**o**

**CLEARSIGHT**

It took some time, but Clearsight eventually got used to being queen.

In fact, she started to kind of enjoy it after a while. She didn't have anyone to report to — no angry and impossibly difficult superiors who might have fired or arrested her if she delivered bad news too bluntly. When a war general asked for direction, _she_ told him what to do. When the library was being underfunded, _she_ gave it more money.

It was terrible and stressful for the first week. She second guessed herself constantly, and she knew that Vigilance's old advisors absolutely did not take a liking to her (which Darkstalker confirmed after reading their minds).

It didn't help that she had no prior training or preparation before she was crowned. There was a whole language of formalities and courtesies that she needed to learn — all while figuring out how to appropriately run council meetings, how to deal with the supplications of the NightWing citizenry, and how to compartmentalize new information from foreign ambassadors and lieutenants and representatives of other important organizations.

But she slowly got into the swing of things, and once she did, she settled into the occupation quite amicably. One of the upsides to the job was that it was far less busy than she'd initially feared it would be. It only took so many hours to dish out a day's worth of work to all the important dragons that reported to her. And once she was done, she had plenty of time to hang out with Darkstalker and Fathom.

Being queen did have one rather annoying downside, though.

As she was walking down the halls with Fathom and Indigo and Darkstalker, a flash struck through her mind. Then a similar looking flash caught itself in the corner of her eye. Gracefully, she lowered her head just in time for a crossbow bolt to whizz over her horns. It hit one of the numerous mirrors in the hallway, shattering it loudly.

"_Again?_" Darkstalker snarled, glaring up at the ceiling shadows. Indigo swiftly darted up and grabbed the assassin, ripping him off of the support beam he was standing on and throwing him to the ground, where he landed on his side. Indigo landed on top of him, keeping him pinned.

"Why do they keep trying?" Darkstalker fumed as he approached the subdued NightWing. "And why do you assassins keep taking the job? Haven't you noticed that all of your coworkers seem to be getting executed?"

"The pay keeps increasing," the assassin grumbled. "Lots of powerful dragons want you dead."

"Care to name names?" Darkstalker asked. "Maybe I can offer double to send a proper assassin after them."

"Can't," he said. "Secrecy is part of the trade."

"Yeah, that's what the others all said," Darkstalker said with a sigh. "And torturing them didn't help either. Well, good on you for letting your commissioners down. I hope they wasted a lot of money on you."

"They certainly did, Your Majesty," the assassin said dejectedly.

Indigo stripped the dragon of all his weapons before a pair of guards swept by to escort him to the dungeon. He was carried off without any fuss, resigned to his fate.

"The conspirators against us are persistent, I'll give them that," Clearsight mused. "I wish they would realize that they can't keep the results of their schemes out of my visions, though." She looked over at Darkstalker. "Do you think any of our councillors are a part of any of this?"

"Not the ones we haven't fired," Darkstalker said as he picked up the crossbow bolt and poked the steel tip with his talon. "I've read their minds. They may not like you very much, but they're not secretly conspiring to kill you."

A few days after their coronation, Clearsight and Darkstalker upgraded the royal advisory body. They kicked out the current high stewardess and replaced her with Whiteout. Thoughtful, Whiteout's husband, was appointed as treasurer, but oftentimes was simply there to act as a translator for Whiteout's remarks. Listener became the new spymaster after the old one proved that she couldn't be trusted. And while Darkstalker desperately wanted to replace the current captain of the royal guard with Indigo, Clearsight warned him that the palace guards would not react positively to being under the command of a SeaWing, and she ended up persuading him to keep the current one.

"We need to do something about this," Indigo said. "Clearly they're just going to keep trying. If we don't put an end to their scheming once and for all, they might actually end up succeeding. They only need to get lucky once."

Indigo did have a point. She and Darkstalker were now about a month into their reign. And after five (wait, now six) assassination attempts, eleven resignations from those who had worked for Queen Vigilance, and two or three angry citizens calling her and Darkstalker deceitful usurpers each day during supplications, it was clear that they still weren't the most popular rulers the Night Kingdom had ever known.

It was better than it appeared at face value, however. According to ground reports from Listener, most of the NightWings were either indifferent or supportive of them. Those who opposed them just happened to be very, very vocal, and very, very mad.

And soon, even that opposition would fade. Once Clearsight followed through on her promise to end the IceWing war, she would prove her value as a queen even to most of the dragons who currently wanted her dead.

"Once the war is over, the conspiracies should die down," Clearsight said. "We probably don't need to do anything. The problem will solve itself."

"Do you really think it's a good idea to wait until that happens?" Indigo asked. "How many more weeks is it going to be before you and Diamond reach an agreement? How many more crossbow bolts are you going to have to dodge?"

"Actually, I'm expecting to receive Queen Diamond's truce acceptance in a few hours," Clearsight told her with a cocksure grin. "So maybe one or two at worst?"

"YOUR MAJESTY!" a voice rang from down the hall. Clearsight immediately recognized it as Crescent, the head messenger for the royal palace.

"Well, would you look at that," Clearsight said happily. "I guess I should have said 'a few seconds' instead."

"You have an urgent message from the Ice Kingdom," Crescent said as he approached Clearsight. He was a very short dragon with a very fast gait, and it always sounded a bit like it was raining when she heard his talons clicking against the smooth stone floor.

He stopped a distance away from Clearsight and bowed, then opened his messenger satchel to produce a pristine scroll bound with a wax seal. The seal depicted a large dead tree with orbular fruits hanging from the branches, which was the symbol of the IceWing royal family ever since Frostbite created the Moon Globe Tree.

"Thank you, Crescent," Clearsight said, taking the scroll from him and breaking it. She turned from him and faced her friends, proudly reading the words that she already knew were written on the paper.

"_To the newly coronated Queen Clearsight,_

"_My hatred for your mother-in-law is not a secret to either of our tribes. This war is all her fault, and she has been adamant in her refusal to comply with any of my previous bargains for peace._

"_I'm curious. Do you know the history of how Darkstalker's parents met? There was a peace summit between our tribes. Ambassadors from your kingdom came up north to discuss our tribal relations. We were hoping to expand our caravans further south into the Talon Peninsula, since at the time we were only trading with the SandWings._

"_But the NightWings had other plans. They dragged along an ugly little fruit bat with them named Foeslayer. She was a charming little floozy, apparently, and she came to the summit with the hopes of intoxicating our prince with her allure — and subsequently having his dragonets, one of whom might harbor animus powers of their own._

"_Surprisingly, it worked. In fact, Foeslayer was so seductive that the unscrupulous little thot convinced Arctic to run away with her, and even use his powers to murder his own kind. The two retreated to the Night Kingdom, and I'm sure you know the rest. They eloped, had two hideous mutants, and started a war that's continuing to this very day._

"_I like to believe that my reaction has been just, and even charitable. My niece believes that Foeslayer's conduct is indicative of your tribe harboring a culture of savagery and deceit. But I am not so keen to agree with her. I believe that there's good in your tribe. It's just that none of that good is present in Foeslayer._

"_There may be some in your husband, as Darkstalker does have Arctic's blood in his veins."_

"HA!" Darkstalker barked. "Don't remind me. There's plenty of good in my soul, but that's no thanks to Arctic."

Clearsight continued. _"But I have been resentful of his existence for quite some time now, and I would rather see his head at the top of a spike than at the top of a kingdom._

"_I recognize the difficulty in making that happen, though — especially now that he's king. Because he is technically my grandson, and because nobody in that bloody kingdom of yours seems to be interested in killing him —"_

"Wrong again," Darkstalker fluted. "They're all just really bad at it."

"— _I will be willing to give him a chance. His offer to us is a promising start. This war has been taxing on both of our tribes, and the return of our prince seems a fair compromise. I would have liked Foeslayer to be punished for what she did, but vengeance can only be the fuel of morale for so long. I have ordered my frontline troops to retreat and return to their outposts up north. When we have our prince back, I will draft up a treaty that I am positive you will ratify._

"_With regards to your hope that our tribes can kindle an alliance, don't hold your breath. It will be a great struggle for me to ever see Darkstalker's half-bloodedness as a symbol of our tribes' unity. His blood will forever be tainted by the circumstances of his hatching. Maybe in a century or two, our tribes can be allied properly. But until then, you stay out of our affairs and we will stay out of yours._

"_May you rule your new kingdom wisely,_

_Queen Diamond"_

Clearsight lifted her eyes from the letter and regarded her friends. They each looked a weird combination of relieved and uncomfortable.

"It sounded a bit mean-spirited for a peace acceptance, if you ask me," Indigo said scrutinously. "She could have done without the whole 'your husband is a hideous mutant and I want to kill him and his sister and his mother' shpiel."

"This is probably the best we can ask for," Clearsight said. "I'm not going to keep warring with her just because there were some rude things in her letter."

"Nah, you totally should," Darkstalker said with a fiery grin. "Send her a reply saying, 'How about you try that again with nicer words? You should really learn how to be more polite to other queens'."

Clearsight snorted. "That would NOT go well _at all_. You may as well dare her to spend the rest of her life trying to invade us."

"Yeah, you can't ask her to not hate Foeslayer," Fathom said. "Didn't Clearsight say that she tried enchanting her to fly to her death a few years ago?"

Clearsight turned to return to her office, where she hoped to stow the letter away and write up a speech declaring the war over. But she was stopped before she took her first step by Crescent, who was still exactly where he had been when he gave Clearsight the letter. Clearsight blinked at him. "Um, yes?"

"Oh — there's another message for you, Your Majesty," he said, producing another scroll. "This one is from the Sea Kingdom."

Clearsight took the letter gingerly, humming at it. "Thank you. Is there anything else for me or Darkstalker?"

"Not at this time, Your Majesty."

"Alright, then run along. These letters are for me, and I may not want you listening to them."

"Oh — I'm very sorry, Queen Clearsight! Don't worry: my lips are sealed. I will act as if I heard nothing." And at that he swiftly trotted away, his talons going _pitter-patter-pitter-patter_ against the floor until they were out of ear's range.

Clearsight turned to face Fathom and Indigo, as she broke the seal on the letter.

"Do you know what this one's about?" Fathom asked, sounding a little nervous.

"No," Clearsight answered. "I haven't had any visions about it. Could it possibly be for you?"

Fathom shook his head. "She addresses her personal letters directly to me."

"Maybe she just wishes to congratulate you on your coronation," Darkstalker suggested.

"Or maybe she wishes to condemn her," Fathom said. "My sister was never a big fan of you."

"Guess we'll find out," Clearsight said, though she had a bad feeling that Fathom was probably right. She unfurled the letter and began reading.

"_To Darkstalker and Clearsight of the Night Kingdom,_

"_News has spread to the Sea Kingdom that you have overthrown the royal NightWing family and usurped the throne for yourselves. We are shocked and appalled by this revelation, and express our deepest sympathies to Vigilance's family — and our deepest condemnations to you."_

"There it is," Fathom said, sounding like he'd just won a contest he secretly wanted to lose.

"_We are not writing this letter as a formal denouncement of your kingdom, however. The Sea Kingdom may despise the means by which you two have assumed power, but if your citizenry accepts and recognizes your authority, then we too will treat you as king and queen._

"_As overseers of the Night Kingdom palace, you have a responsibility to us that you inherited from Queen Vigilance. That responsibility is to house, take care of, and protect Prince Fathom and his SeaWing bodyguards — two of whom have since returned to the Sea Kingdom under what now appear to be extremely suspicious circumstances._

"_Prince Fathom has been in your company for three years now, and he has insisted that his task is not yet done — that he needs more time to get through to Darkstalker, to ensure that he does not use his magic and does not fall sway to corruption. We have been patient with him until now, but your ruthless seizure of the throne has confirmed our most harrowing suspicions. Fathom has, regretfully, failed at keeping Darkstalker at bay._

"_We have decided that our prince is no longer safe in the Night Kingdom, and that you are not to be trusted with the responsibility that we had bestowed onto Queen Vigilance. We demand that Prince Fathom and his bodyguard Indigo be brought back to the Sea Kingdom swiftly and immediately. If you refuse to comply with this demand, it will be treated as a royal kidnapping and our response will be of the utmost intensity. See to it that our prince is returned, or it will be known ..."_

Clearsight blanched as she read over the next words. She swallowed, pausing for several seconds before continuing.

"_... or it will be known to all of Pyrrhia that a state of war shall exist between our tribes._

"_Signed,_

_Queen Pearl"_

Clearsight sagged, and her arms fell to her side.

"I should have known," Fathom said miserably. "I should have _known_ that she was going to take us back anyway."

"Why didn't you see this coming?" Indigo asked, sounding accusational. "I thought you could see the future. How come you didn't know about this?"

"I don't know," Clearsight said, suddenly feeling like her legs had turned to jelly. "I can't see the entire future all at once. I guess I've been so focused on the Ice Kingdom that I didn't realize this was going to happen."

"How?" Indigo asked loudly. "Wasn't the _entire point_ of you becoming queen to make sure Fathom and I didn't have to go back to the Sea Kingdom? Why didn't you make sure that we were actually going to be protected?"

"You _will_ be protected," Darkstalker said sternly. "We're not sending you back there."

"So you're gonna go to war with them instead?" Indigo asked. "Fine alternative. I'm sure your subjects will _love_ you after that."

"We'll appeal to Queen Pearl. Fathom can tell her that he's happier here and he wants to stay in the Night Kingdom — which, frankly, he should have done a long time ago."

"She already knows I'm happier here," Fathom said. "That's partly why I've been able to stay here for so long already."

"Then vouch for my character," Darkstalker said. "Let her know that I've been nothing but friendly and cordial this entire time, and that I've been _very_ careful with my magic."

"She doesn't trust my word. Can't you see that she's already made up your mind about you?"

Fathom was right, as he usually was with his sister. She couldn't find any readily available futures where Queen Pearl backed down on her threat.

Still, she felt that she had to at least _try_ to negotiate with her. She agreed with Darkstalker — there was _no way_ she'd let them take Fathom and Indigo away, especially after all they'd done to get the throne. But closing off any discussion with Queen Pearl would only ensure that they went to war faster. "I'll send a reply to Pearl tomorrow," she said. "I'll try to tell her that sending Fathom and Indigo back would be in neither of our best interests. Maybe I can get her to set up a meeting with us, or discuss the possibility of a compromise."

"It's not going to happen," Fathom said hesitantly. "She's too worried about me and she's too scared of you and Darkstalker. You aren't gonna change her mind."

"Maybe not, but I still want to talk to her." She looked sadly at the letter again, feeling tempted to crumple it up and throw it away. "In the meantime, I'll send orders to our soldiers to return home. I want them to enjoy a warless kingdom for as long as they can." And she walked to her office, readying herself for a long discussion with the future timelines.


	19. Chapter 18

**o**

**FATHOM**

After the war with the IceWings ended, Fathom and Indigo got married.

This was a publicity stunt, and Darkstalker informed them as such prior to the planning. "Romance is pretty deeply entwined in NightWing culture," he'd said. "If we highlight how much you two love each other, we'll appear a lot more noble if we end up fighting the SeaWings."

Fathom and Indigo didn't mind this too much. In fact, it seemed like a pretty smart move. They wanted to get married in the first place anyway. The only thing keeping them from doing so was Queen Pearl, but at this point, it didn't really matter if she knew that they were together.

So they wed, and King Darkstalker and Queen Clearsight milked out all of the good public relations from it that they could have. Which actually made the wedding _really awesome._ It was a grand ceremony. The entire Kingdom was invited, and thousands of dragons showed up. The wedding took place on the beach, near Fathom and Indigo's favorite spot, where the moonlight always sparkled against the ocean, and the waves always seemed just a little bit calmer than they were everywhere else. They wanted to get married at sunset, but that was too early for a wedding in the Night Kingdom, so instead they got married at midnight, on a night when one of the moons was almost full, and hung brightly overhead.

"These two dragons have been in our company for many years now," Darkstalker said in his speech. "Before they took shelter beneath our palace, Prince Fathom was held in isolation by his family. Because of his animus gift, they treated him like a monster, worthy of ridicule and neglect. They never would have let Fathom follow his heart, so that he could be with the dragon he loved. By denying Fathom this right, the Sea Kingdom rejected his dragonhood. They no longer saw him as a dragon, but instead as a caged animal that would eventually be put down.

"I am proud of my citizens for treating him better than his own tribe ever did, or ever will. When he came to the Night Kingdom, we accepted him with open wings, and he has since found a home here with us. We made him happy again, and we gave back to him the rights that any dragon of any scale color ought to have.

"And it goes without saying, I cannot be more grateful — or more proud — of Indigo, for being there for him. She fought and trained, harder than any other dragon in the Sea Kingdom, for the privilege to love and protect him. And it is my honor to allow her to continue loving and protecting him into her marriage.

"Queen Pearl may wish to separate these two. She may wish to take Fathom back to the Sea Kingdom, where he will be isolated, and treated with the same level of scorn and ruthless ostracism that he was subject to before. Let it be known that I will _never _let her do this. As long as Fathom is under our roof and in the confines of our kingdom, he will always have the right to be happy, and he will be treated and protected as any other member of our tribe would be."

He faced Fathom and beamed. "Let us rejoice! Soon, these two dragons will make their vows to each other — newer vows that will take the place of older vows, and _better _vows that will now be made to better dragons."

Once Darkstalker's speech was over, Clearsight went through all of the official ceremonial items. She had Fathom and Indigo join talons. Clearsight took a black length of silk that looked a bit like a scarf, and tied it around their intertwined arms. Then they exchanged their vows, and Clearsight pronounced them married, and it was all very beautiful and Fathom was in tears by the end of it. Clearsight soon said, "May the light of the moons rain peace, strength, and joy upon you — and may it stay with you now and forevermore. Fathom, Indigo, you may seal your marriage with a kiss."

But Indigo was already kissing him, and Fathom could feel his heart thumping madly in his chest. Lustfully, he let go of Indigo's talons, shook the stupid scarf thing off of him, and placed his talons on her face, pulling her in closer.

And the audience _cheered_. Darkstalker wasn't kidding when he said the NightWings liked themselves a good romance. He and Indigo got a standing ovation that lasted longer than their kiss had. (He didn't know how long the kiss lasted, though. Was it only a few seconds? Was it ten minutes? Was it a whole lifetime, and he was just living a moment of delusional bliss while slowly slipping away into the afterlife?)

And the continuous stream of congratulations that they received from NightWings during the reception only validated Darkstalker further. It was truly incredible. He was amazed by how many complete strangers there were who were actually _happy_ that he was here with them, and that he had gotten the opportunity to be with Indigo.

The days followed, and he soul-soared and honeymooned with his new wife. Life was getting better and better, and the world was getting brighter and brighter.

And then the night of the meeting with Pearl came.

He knew that it wasn't going to be a very good day, but he couldn't have imagined that it would turn out as awful as it did. Nor could he have imagined that it _could have_ turned out much, _much_ worse.

Both facts became clearer when they all approached the door to their meeting room. It was about four weeks after the wedding. NightWing morale was high, and the citizenry were starting to feel proud to have Clearsight as their queen and Darkstalker as their king. Clearsight knew that this conference with Pearl was not going to be successful, but in her eyes, the fact that she managed to convince the SeaWing queen to meet with her in the first place was a success. It gave them all the more time to prepare for the inevitable fallout.

They decided on meeting with her in a small emissary building on an island in the Talon Peninsula. It was more remote than the palace and further away from the heart of the kingdom, which helped keep potentially hostile foreigners away from vulnerable inland hotspots. It was the same building where Clearsight and Darkstalker had gone to when discussing the peace treaty with Queen Diamond.

Clearsight landed on the island first, and she stayed perfectly still as the others joined her on the beach. As she was queen, it would have been customary for her to lead the way into the building, which looked like a homely stone cabin surrounded by hearty evergreens. It wasn't the only building on the island, but it was the only inhabited one at the moment: smoke from a chimney fluffed overhead, passing over the whippoorwills and slumbering owls and into the sky like a long, polluted cloud.

SeaWing decorations were placed here and there, as Clearsight had requested. Ceramic starfish, tiki torches, and empurpled wooden carvings of powerful SeaWings helped welcome the newcomers from the other side of the world.

Fathom looked over at Clearsight when he realized that she'd been still for an unusually long time. She was staring at the entranceway to the building, where Queen Pearl was supposedly waiting. And she looked … _livid_. Her snout was making these weird twitches, as if she'd just sniffed something really spicy, and her pupils were needle thin. He'd never seen Clearsight look this way before.

"Um … Clearsight?" Fathom said timidly.

Clearsight closed her eyes. "Fathom," she started, her voice eerily calm. "Your sister is the most aggravating, paranoid, and reckless dragon on the entire continent."

Fathom was too startled to form a coherent reply to that. His best efforts resulted in him sputtering, "I … uh … are you just realizing that now?"

"You had a vision, didn't you?" Darkstalker asked, craning his head towards Clearsight and frowning.

"_Yes,_ I had a vision," Clearsight said through grit teeth. "It ended with Darkstalker and me getting murdered by two SeaWings hiding on the ceiling, Pearl dragging Fathom back to the Sea Kingdom, a long and hazardous war that the NightWings will probably end up losing, and no negotiations at all between Pearl and us before any of that happens." Her talons gripped at the sand, and tiny rivulets of grains poured out from between them. "There isn't a meeting table behind those doors. There's just a trap."

Darkstalker glowered at Clearsight, then marched forward.

Clearsight's eyes raised in alarm, then she cantered after him. "Darkstalker, wait! Did you not hear a word I said? They'll kill you the moment you step through those doors."

"I'm not _going_ to step through those doors," Darkstalker said. When Fathom inched closer to the building, he noticed that Darkstalker's eyes were locked on an armorclad NightWing guarding the front entrance. Darkstalker promptly whistled her over.

Looking a little bit nervous, she marched forth to meet them. "Your Majesty?" she said, bowing low. "Queen Pearl is awaiting your audience."

"Why are there two assassins with her?" Darkstalker asked, looking like he was trying to suppress a growl.

The guard blinked. "You mean her two bodyguards? Uh — Your Majesty, it's customary for any foreign royalty to come with a small entourage for personal protection. We allow them the privilege so that they may feel safer when stepping foot into our kingdom."

"I didn't ask about bodyguards, I asked about _assassins,_" Darkstalker said, his eyes growing colder by the second. "Queen Clearsight told me that there are two SeaWings armed and ready to kill whoever steps foot into that building. _Why_ are they there? Are _we_ not supposed to be afforded the same protections?"

The guard gave him a confused look. "King Darkstalker, of _course_ you are given the same protections. That's why I'm here. That's why there are two more NightWing guards in the building awaiting your arrival."

"They've both been killed," Clearsight said, sounding like she'd made a horrifying realization.

The guard's eyes went wide. "What?" she said. "No they haven't." Swiftly, she turned around and trotted back to the building.

"Wait, stop!" Clearsight said, running up and blocking her path.

"My brother is one of those guards; he _can't_ have been killed." She looked as if she were about to simply walk around Clearsight, but she stopped herself. "Please allow me to pass, Your Majesty," she said desperately.

Clearsight shook her head and spread her wings. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm not making this up. They're dead, and they'll kill you too if you walk in. We need to go back. All of us. Right now."

An oddly obvious realization came to him when Clearsight told them that: Queen Pearl was inside that building. His sister, whom he hadn't seen in over three years. It was weird, finally being this close to her and suddenly turning away. He couldn't help but feel that there was an opportunity he was missing — like if he left right now, then he might never get the chance to actually see her again.

Fathom ran his talons through the sand, hesitantly. _Do it,_ his conscience told him. _Whether she'll listen or not, she needs to hear you._

"Wait," he finally said to them. "You guys go on ahead. I want to talk to her."

Clearsight looked at Fathom like he'd just pointed a crossbow at himself. "Absolutely not!" she said.

"I'll be safe," he argued. "She'd never kill me."

"You're the one she wants, Fathom," she argued back. "She may not kill you, but she'll take you away."

"We won't let her do that," Fathom said. "I promise you we won't."

"Why do you even want to talk to her?" Darkstalker asked, his head craned back and his eyebrow raised. "She just proved to everyone here that she's not interested in negotiating."

"She's my sister," Fathom said. "I just want to actually see her again. I want her to see my face when I tell her that I'm happier here. Check the futures if you want to make sure, but I swear, I won't go back to the Sea Kingdom with her. The moment she tries to take us by force, we'll fight back. Right, Indigo?"

"With pleasure," Indigo said, smiling confidently. "I could take two SeaWing lackeys with my arms tied together. I think Fathom and I owe Queen Pearl a visit anyway."

Darkstalker looked at Clearsight, who appeared to be checking the futures. Her eyes were closed and her head was lowered. When she finally lifted her eyelids again, she gave him a fearful look that he hadn't seen on her since she'd become queen. "Be _careful_, Fathom," she said. "Please don't let them take you."

"If they do, we will send a fully armed battalion their way to take you back," Darkstalker said. "Now go and tell her who's boss."

Fathom smiled at him, and he smiled back. Then Clearsight took to the sky and the other two NightWings followed her back to the Night Kingdom.

Fathom brought his eyes back to Indigo, who was proudly standing beside him, looking as if she were prouder in that moment than she ever had been to be his wife. He gave a half-smile at her, and she raised her chin triumphantly. Their gestures were part of a whole language of unspoken words that the two of them had unconsciously developed with each other, but had come to understand just as well as they would understand Dragon. His half-smile meant something like, _"I knew that you'd be okay with this crazy plan of mine."_ And her chin-raise in reply meant something like, _"Of course I'd be okay with it. What, did you think I was going to _agree_ with those knuckleheads who didn't want you seeing her?"_

"I wish I'd brought more weapons," Indigo said, using actual words this time. "I'd feel a lot safer with a whale tooth spear in my talons."

Fathom took a deep breath and walked up to the door. He was only a dozen or so steps, but getting closer took eerily long.

"Queen Pearl, it's Fathom," he said loudly, once he was in front of the door. "Tell your guards to not kill me when I walk in."

He counted about ten heartbeats before he heard the sound of shuffling and footsteps from within. The door swung open, and on the other side was a bright cyan dragon who looked like she'd just seen a ghost. She was definitely Pearl. She looked a lot older now (_way_ more than three years older; being queen must have aged her quite a bit), and was decorated with the same necklaces and bracelets that she always used to wear.

Immediately, she grabbed Fathom by the shoulders and pulled him inside.

"Wait!" Fathom yelped, trying to pull himself from her grasp. He could feel Indigo's scales brushing up against his, following him as if they were magnetized to his body.

"Pearl, let him —" Indigo started, before being interrupted by the sharp slam of the door behind them. Fathom looked behind him and saw two heavily armored sea-foam green SeaWings, each armed with a spear in one talon, and at least two other blades sheathed to their bodies. Fathom noticed a freshly bleeding wound on one guard's neck, and he immediately brought his eyes forward, not wanting to remember that there were two dead NightWings somewhere in here.

Pearl let him go. She darted to one of the windows and looked outside, then looked back at Fathom. "Where is he?" she asked anxiously.

Fathom blinked. "Who, Darkstalker?"

"Yes! He was supposed to be here," she said. "With Queen Clearsight too. It's not like they'd just send you here alone. That wouldn't make any sense."

"They're not here," Fathom said.

Pearl blinked, looking like she was cautiously letting some of her fear turn into confusion.

"They figured out what you were planning to do to them," he told her. "Clearsight had a vision. She saw everything."

Indigo growled at the ground. "Just my luck. Of _course_ she'd have a vision about the _one_ thing I needed her to not find out about. What are you doing here, then? Are they actually giving in to my demands?"

"No," he said. "I asked them if I could stay and talk to you."

"And they _agreed?_ Fathom, they can't be that stupid." She peered out the window again, her eyes darting from one spot to another. "Maybe they just told you that."

"They're not stupid. They just trust me." He took a step closer to her and brushed his wing against hers to get her attention. "Pearl, you do realize I want to stay here, right?"

Pearl gave Fathom a look of wounded surprise. "What? Why?" she asked.

The look of surprise Fathom gave her had to have eclipsed her own. "How did you not know that? I thought you sent me here because you were _expecting_ me to be happier here."

"That was _before_ Darkstalker turned tyrannical and murdered his queen!" Pearl shrieked, flailing her talons in the air. "And no, I sent you here because you needed to keep something like this from happening."

"He's not tyrannical, Pearl; he's actually a really good king. You might have actually realized that if you decided to talk to him."

"_Talk_ to him? Fathom, I don't even want to be _near_ him. I'm risking everything trying to rescue you already." She paced further into the building, and Fathom noticed that she _really_ looked terrified. Her eyes were stressed and tired, and her tail flicked to and fro. "I don't know what they could possibly want with you, but I know it can't be good. You might be an animus, but you're still my brother. What kind of a sister would I be if I didn't try to protect you from them?"

Fathom cocked his head, feeling offended, touched, and confused all at once. "Pearl, I just told you —"

"I _know_ what you just told me, Fathom," Pearl interrupted, snapping her eyes back at him. "It doesn't make sense, though. Look at what Darkstalker did to his queen! And don't forget about Wharf and Lionfish either. There's _no_ doubt in my mind that they used his magic on …" Pearl's eyes suddenly went wide. "Have you been using your magic again?"

Fathom felt like he just got hit in the head with a log of driftwood. Too dazed to give a reply, he ended up letting Indigo answer for him. "No, he has not," she said. "Fathom hasn't cast a single spell since he saved —" She caught herself suddenly, then corrected herself, saying, "since I saved him from Albatross."

"Don't lie to me," Pearl said intensely. "I know Fathom. He'd never be okay with any of this happening — unless something happened to his soul."

"Pearl, I want to stay here because —" Fathom started.

"What did you do, Fathom?" Pearl asked, ignoring Fathom's words. "You can tell me: I'll forgive you. I just need to know how bad it is."

"I never used my magic!" Fathom said impatiently.

"Yes you did, don't deny it," Pearl said, equally impatiently. "Or maybe you've been brainwashed. Did he tamper with your thoughts?"

"No he didn't! And _I didn't use my powers,_ Pearl!"

"Then why in Pyrrhia would you want to stay here with Darkstalker?"

"Because I'm _wanted_ here!" he shouted back, ignoring the lump forming in his throat. He also ignored how the guards suddenly took their stances and pointed their spears at him. "Because here, I'm not caged up and locked away like some sort of deranged viper. Because maybe I don't want to go back to waking up every morning feeling guilty and terrified and unwanted and alone."

Pearl paused, and looked sadly at her brother. "Oh, Fathom," she said, reaching a talon forward. She looked like she was about to hug him, and Fathom was secretly hoping she would. He already felt the sting of tears in his eyes, and he needed a gesture from her to let him know that she was on his side.

But she didn't hug him. She brought her talon back to the ground, and said, "I needed everyone to feel safe," she said. "Safe from you."

"I was _miserable_," Fathom said to her. "And you _knew_ I was miserable. I had no friends, Pearl. Not until I came here, and Darkstalker helped me feel happy again."

"I'll be better this time," Pearl said. "I'll find you some friends. I'll let them know you're probably not dangerous yet."

Fathom shook his head. "It's too late, Pearl. I'm staying here."

"But you _can't_," Pearl said. "You're the SeaWing prince, and you've been gone for three years now. It's time to come home."

She placed a talon on his shoulder — too little too late. Fathom swatted it off and turned away from her. "This is my home now, Pearl," he said. "The NightWings have treated me better than my own tribe ever will." He blinked, noticing that he was parroting Darkstalker's speech at his wedding. Which reminded him that he had a confession he needed to make.

He faced his sister, who was having a tough time looking back at him now. "Pearl," he said, "Indigo and I are married now."

Pearl actually scoffed at that, and a smile crept to her face. "Figures," she said. "You two were smitten for each other. Indigo, I hope you know about the oath Fathom made to me."

"I do," Indigo said. She gave Fathom a subtle glance with a slight smile — another complex sentence in their unspoken language. This one meant something like, _"I dare you to break it."_

"It was mostly for your sake that I had him make it," Pearl said. "I think you'd make a good mother."

"I would much rather be with Fathom for the rest of my life than take another dragon's eggs," Indigo said nobly.

"Even if that means never taking _his_ eggs?"

"Of course."

Pearl frowned. She appeared to be looking at something between the two of them, and Fathom noticed that Indigo had twined her tail around his.

"No," the SeaWing queen said. "Fathom, I'm sorry, but none of this is okay. You can't stay here. You can't be with Indigo like this. We're going back to the Sea Kingdom, and we're going back now."

"No!" Fathom said, digging his talons into the floorboards as if a giant eagle were about to try picking him up and flying him to its nest. "You can't make me."

"I'm your _queen_, and that was an _order_," Pearl said definitively. "You're not thinking straight, Fathom. Darkstalker manipulated you into thinking what he did was okay. Once you've spent some time back in the Sea Kingdom, you'll realize how reckless and delusional you're being right now."

"_You're_ the one who's being reckless and delusional," Indigo retorted. "The NightWings have been nothing but cooperative, and you tried to stab them in the back the first opportunity you got."

"I did what I needed to do to save my brother, Indigo," Pearl said. "And that's not changing." With a louder voice, she commanded the guards, "Arrest them."

An instant later, both guards were double-teaming Indigo, who had just tried to reach for her knife. One grabbed her arm and started twisting it, and the other gripped at her horn and locked his jaws into her neck.

"Get your dirty talons off of me!" Indigo shrieked as she began flailing about.

"Wait, don't hurt her!" Fathom cried. He wedged himself between Indigo and the guard grabbing her arm, pressing his talons to the guard's neck and pushing him away. The guard let go for a moment to whack him across the snout with the backside of his gauntlet, and Fathom stumbled to the ground, disoriented.

Indigo used her free talon to strike the other guard in the throat with the heel of her palm. He loosened his bite, and Indigo whirled her head around to get him to let go of her horn.

For an instant, she was free, and bolted for the door. But the door was closed, and by the time Indigo was reaching to open it, her tail had been grabbed and she was being dragged back in the direction of the guards.

Fathom got up and ran after the struggling dragons again, but got pinned to the ground by Pearl. "This is for your own good, Fathom," she said through grit teeth as Fathom tried to wrestle himself free from her.

"Please, just let us go!" Fathom begged. He watched as the two guards got back to work at attempting to detain Indigo again. Indigo twisted around so her back was on the floor, and scratched at the dragon who was pulling her tail. The second guard spun around and bludgeoned her head with his tail, and immediately afterwards the first guard let go of her tail and threw all of his weight on her shoulders. "Get the rope," he said to the second guard, before biting into Indigo's neck again to pin her down.

"No, stop!" Fathom wailed.

Beneath the second guard's wing was a circle of rope, tied in a lasso. He unhooked it from his armor and wrapped it around Indigo's neck before tightening it. Indigo let out a choking sound that made Fathom's stomach twist.

"Let her go!"

The guards didn't let her go. Indigo flailed with her arms and used her head to try to break free from the hold against her. The dragon on top of her bit harder into her neck, and Indigo yelped in pain. A second later, he saw blood in the dragon's mouth.

"Let her go!" Fathom wailed again.

"Stop struggling, Indigo!" Pearl demanded. "You're going to get yourself killed!"

This wasn't how things were supposed to go. They were supposed to be able to avoid this situation. Clearsight saw that, right? She checked the futures: she saw them avoiding capture, right? Did he do something wrong? Was there something he could do to get out of this?

He tried struggling again, but to no avail. Pearl was bigger and stronger than him, and kept him pressed against the floorboards with ease.

He couldn't let this happen. He _couldn't_. He wasn't going back to the Sea Kingdom, and he _wasn't_ being separated from Indigo. But he didn't know what to do. There had to be _something_ he could do.

"Let her go!" he said desperately, a third time.

The guard holding the lasso pulled the rope, forcing Indigo's neck to extend. He turned around and lifted his tail, preparing for a strike to her head that would certainly knock her unconscious.

"_I enchant you to let her go!"_

The words escaped his mouth before he completely registered them. At once, the guard holding the rope dropped it, and the guard on top of Indigo was propelled back, as if an invisible dragon shoved him away. He landed lopsidedly on the ground. Indigo twisted around and stood up, loosening the lasso around her neck and sucking in a breath of air.

There was a moment — right after when Pearl became so startled that she scrambled off of Fathom — where everyone went still and silent. The look his sister gave him in that moment, and the feeling that was starting to well up in his chest — that was _exactly_ why he never wanted to go back to the Sea Kingdom.

_They think you're a monster,_ he thought.

_Maybe because you really _are _becoming one._

The moment of stillness was brief, though. Soon, Indigo ran for the door and swung it open. "Fathom, let's go!" she shouted. And Fathom followed her outside.

Neither Pearl nor her guards tried stopping them as they fled. Within less than a minute, he was high in the sky, flying back to the Talon Peninsula as quickly as his wings could take him. And all the while, his mind was rushing a million miles a second.

He'd just broken his vow. The _important_ vow, the one that he knew he would have to make after what had happened to Albatross. The oath he sealed with an X in his palm. He used his magic again, just like he'd always feared he would.

Was he supposed to feel more monstrous? Was there supposed to be an aura of corruption and anger pulsating through his veins? Because he didn't feel that. He felt nervous and anxious, wondering if that was the spell that brought him over the edge. But other than that, everything was the same.

And for the first time, something pushed back against the anxiety and guilt. For the first time, he started to wonder if he was being paranoid about animus magic. He knew, rationally, that Darkstalker would be willing to use his magic to protect him, or to make something for him that would make his life better. And while he always considered it his mission to get Darkstalker to ease up on his use of that magic, there was a part of him that was deeply comforted by that fact.

The oath that he'd made had been broken, but that didn't matter. He renounced his ties to the Sea Kingdom, and to his sister, and in doing so he renounced the vows that he made to her. The question he found himself asking now was whether that vow was worth renewing. If Darkstalker could use his magic to improve the lives of those around him ... maybe he could do the same.


	20. Chapter 19

**o**

**CLEARSIGHT**

Clearsight was sitting on the beach, meditating.

It was sunset. She was starting to really grow fond of sunset. She could feel the lingering warmth of the sun rays beneath her talons in the bed of sand. She could breath in the emptiness, as most of the dragons in the kingdom were either still sleeping or having breakfast. And she could hear the silence, as the chirping birds were starting to go to bed and the nocturnal chittering insects were just shy of waking up. All she could hear was the gentle ebb and flow of the ocean waves.

It had been two months since the war started. After the rest of the Night Kingdom found out about the murder of the two NightWing guards, an incredible display of sorrowful fury erupted from her tribe. Memorials were held in their honor all around the kingdom, and the SeaWing Queen's name was cursed for weeks.

Clearsight had actually found herself in a position where _she _could be the one declaring war on the SeaWings, rather than the other way around. Her subjects were frenzied enough that she knew it would have had a lot of support.

Not that it would have mattered, but she decided against this option. Instead, she sent a letter to Pearl demanding reparations for killing the two guards. And as expected, Pearl responded by declaring war on the NightWings.

War was stressful. She'd stepped into her role as queen knowing nothing more about it than the fact that dragons fought. As it turned out, there was a whole sea of military intelligence that she needed to learn about, and a family of questions that she needed to answer. Where should troops be deployed? How should resources be distributed? What footholds would need to be established in order to initiate an invasion plan?

Darkstalker never pressed for her to approve of the use of animus magic to aid in them the war effort — something which _really_ surprised her. They talked about it, of course. The idea was on the table from the very start. But Darkstalker was tentatively opposed to using it, at least for the time being.

"I never used my magic when we were fighting against the IceWings, and they never used their magic against us," he'd argued when they discussed the idea in the council room. "As long as we're winning the war with the SeaWings, we may as well treat them the same."

She was rubbing off on Darkstalker, she could tell. He was keeping an eye on his magic, and trying to restrain himself, despite him being king. It was true that the futures she saw still had some threads of darkness woven in them, but it was hard to worry about those futures when Darkstalker was acting more sensibly now than she ever could have hoped. For all the fears she'd had when Darkstalker first suggested taking the throne, he'd proven himself to be extremely responsible with it so far.

Perhaps that was why she was starting to let herself relax a little bit more — to give herself permission to be happy, to ask herself what it was that she wanted, and to start making decisions that were going to lead to _her_ happiness, not just to a safer world.

But right now, she had no decisions to make. Right now, what made her happy was simply sitting and listening to the crashing waves as the setting sun warmed her scales.

The sound of dragon wings snuck up behind her. Clearsight opened her eyes and turned her head to find that Darkstalker had landed on the beach and was approaching her. Clearsight let him sit by her side and wrap a wing around her. They leaned into each other.

"My mother sent me a letter yesterday," he said. "Arctic has been writing to her. Apparently his spirits haven't lifted too much since he returned to the Ice Kingdom."

"That's too bad," Clearsight said. "I was hoping he'd be happier there."

"Well, _I'm_ happier with him there; that's for sure," Darkstalker laughed. "But it's the fact that he's there that's the problem. Apparently the IceWings aren't letting him out of their palace, meaning he's not allowed to come down here to visit Foeslayer or Whiteout."

Clearsight frowned, feeling conflicted about that. "That sounds an awful lot like the SeaWings and their relationship with Fathom," she said.

"It does, doesn't it? I'd feel sorry for him if he didn't spend every waking minute of his life acting like he hated this place while he was here." He turned towards his right, facing the north. "He's probably better off staying there anyway. He could be an unwitting spy for us."

"A spy?" Clearsight questioned. "Why would we need to spy on the IceWings?"

"Because it turns out they may be supporting the SeaWings. Arctic accidentally revealed in his letter that their 'Gift of Sustenance' has started being put to use for exports."

"'Gift of Sustenance'?"

"A lake on the edge of the kingdom that has been enchanted to supply IceWings with free seals," he said. "Nobody in the Ice Kingdom uses it themselves unless they want to be dishonored for life."

"Hmm…" Clearsight shot a frown at Darkstalker. "Why didn't you tell me about this yesterday?"

"We were busy," he said with a smirk. "And you were in such a good mood. I didn't want to ruin that by giving you another thing to worry about." He looked out into the ocean and watched as the sun painted the sky red. "What got you into such a good mood yesterday, anyway?"

Clearsight felt flutters in her stomach. Yes, she'd wanted to make sure her joy was particularly apparent to Darkstalker the other day, and she made sure she kept quiet about anything that might have given away why. She took a bit of joy in knowing something that Darkstalker didn't. She wanted to let his mind hypothesize for a bit — to tease him for just a few minutes longer.

She lifted her chin, letting a gentle breeze stroke the scales along her neck. "Do you know where we are right now?" she asked.

Darkstalker smiled proudly. "I do, actually. This is where we were when I gave you that watch."

Clearsight nodded. "You have no idea how long ago that was for me," she said.

"I try not to think about it," Darkstalker said. "It bothers me more than you realize — remembering that you had to start over."

"Don't feel guilty," Clearsight said. "You're a different dragon now. A better one."

"You still worry though, don't you?" Darkstalker asked. "About the future."

"I'm never going to stop worrying about the future, Darkstalker," Clearsight said. "That's something I've come to accept lately. I know you want me to live a life where I'll never have to worry, but my powers are always going to be here. And as long as I can see the future, I'll be stressing over the things I need to avoid." Clearsight looked solemnly at her talons, though she felt some relief admitting that.

"I just wish I could be perfect. I wish it was impossible for me to do any wrong, so that it'd be impossible for you to see any darkness." Darkstalker tilted his head so that it rested against Clearsight's. "I hope I'm at least making you happy. Because you still make me happy every single day."

"Oh, Darkstalker, of course you make me happy," she whispered. "_You_ were the reason I was so happy today. I want to stay this happy for the rest of my life, and that's exactly why I'm always going to keep worrying."

The last beam of sun buried itself beneath the blackened horizon. The clouds in the distance became a deep purple. The cicadas in the forest behind them began to sing their long night-time chorales.

"I'm pregnant."

Darkstalker straightened up. "You—you are?"

Clearsight nodded, beaming happily. "There's a boy and a girl cooking in me right now."

"There's _two?_" Darkstalker rose to his feet, his eyes brighter than the stars. "Clearsight, don't lie to me."

Clearsight giggled. "I'm not lying."

"No." A small smile crept into his features. "No, be real with me, Clearsight."

Clearsight stood up and brushed her head against the bottom of Darkstalker's chin. "Darkstalker's going to be a daddy," she said in a singsong voice.

"_Shut up!_" His tail began to flick excitedly. "Tell me the truth, Clearsight. You're not really pregnant."

"I _am,_" she insisted. "They're in all of my visions, Darkstalker. They both look so much like you. They've got your deep black eyes, and your handsome smile—"

"—Stop _messing with me_, Clearsight!" He gathered her talons into his grasp, looking like he was on the verge of ears. "You can't be serious. Am I really going to be a father?"

He gave Darkstalker a loving smile, which she hoped answered his question because words were obviously not working.

With her talons still in his claws, Darkstalker walked closer to her. And closer, and closer, until he'd forced her to lean back so much that she fell over and landed on her back. Soon, a large and very affectionate NightWing was on top of her, pressing his body against hers. Their legs and tails interlocked, and he nuzzled her furiously. "Clearsight," he murmured, wrapping his arms around her. "Oh Clearsight, I love you so much."

"I love you too," she murmured back, holding onto his neck as they embraced.

_How could this dragon possibly be the same one I see in my visions?_ she wondered as he squeezed her tightly. _He's so sweet — so caring. How could anything possibly cause him to become the twisted tyrant that's in some of the timelines?_

She didn't know. And right now, she didn't care. Soon, she was going to become a mother. A whole world of joys and sorrows and adventures were in store for them. Between the continuing war with the SeaWings and the prospect of motherhood, all of her energy would need to be directed towards keeping her world afloat. As certain as she was that the future would continue to be on her mind, she also knew that the present was going to be needing almost all of her attention.

But she didn't mind. Right now, the present was a wonderful place to be in.


	21. Chapter 20

**o**

**FATHOM**

Fathom was envious of Darkstalker and Clearsight. Their powers enabled them to be better parents than Fathom could ever dream of being.

On the one talon, Darkstalker was a natural dad with natural charm, and he was the one spending most of his time with the kids. He'd parade them about the palace, take them on flights around the Night Kingdom, and play with them for hours on end. Fathom was sure that they got to see plenty of Clearsight as well, but while she was busy being queen and fighting an ever-worsening war with the SeaWings, Darkstalker was the one teaching them everything they needed to know.

Clearsight, on the other talon, seemed to be something of an invisible guardian to them. Fathom learned from Darkstalker that she got up early every day just to take an hour to study her dragonets' futures. She looked through all the things Darkstalker wanted to do with them for the day, and found which options were the safest, the most fun, and the most educational.

And then when she'd searched through the futures, she gave Darkstalker some seer advice before letting him have his fun. So, before Fathom and Darkstalker flew out to their secret spot in the woods that night, with one dragonet on each of their backs, Clearsight gave them a warning: "Make sure Solstice is careful around the ravine. If he falls, he can get pretty badly hurt."

It was dark out in the woods. Fathom touched down before the clearing and extended a wing to let Remedy off of his back.

Darkstalker stood before his two dragonets, both of whom very much took after their father. Remedy had gentle curls on her horns and little specks of white along the back of her wings. Her brother Solstice had deep black scales all throughout his body, just like Darkstalker did.

They were both three months from turning one, which meant they were tiny balls of unstoppable energy that were graced with the misfortune of not being able to fly yet. It also meant that there was a lot that they still needed to learn about the world.

"Before you become hunters," Darkstalker told them as they sat and listened, "you must first learn to understand what it is like to be prey. You must know where your targets will hide, how they will try to run, and what will be going through their minds when you get close to them."

"Why can't we just learn how to kill them?" Remedy asked, tilting her head at her father's explanation.

"Yeah, why can't we just learn how to KILL them?" Solstice asked. "I wanna learn how to RIP apart rabbits and tear off their FACES!"

"There are two reasons," Darkstalker explained. "Firstly, rabbits are smarter and faster than you think they are. If you underestimate them, you'll never be able to capture them, and one sure-fire way to underestimate rabbits is to not learn about how they think. Secondly,: both of you are too small to fly, which means you're also too small to hunt. You _are_, however, the perfect size to be rabbits for me and uncle Fathom to snack on before dinner."

"WHAT?!" Solstice squeaked. "I don't wanna be a RABBIT. That's _dumb_!"

"Quiet now," Darkstalker said, smirking. "If a rabbit is too loud, then the dragons will hear him, and then they'll snatch him up and eat him. Now, listen carefully: you and Remedy are going to go out into the woods and hide from me and Fathom. Then, we're going to try and find you. If we capture you, then you get eaten and you lose the game. If you manage to run away after we find you, then you win."

"What if you can't find us?" Remedy asked.

"Then you _super _win," Darkstalker told them. "If Fathom and I give up because you're too hard to find, we'll call your name and tell you to come back. Which means no going too far away, alright? You'll need to be able to still hear our voices."

"I'm totally going to super win!" Solstice announced. "I'm the BEST at finding hiding spots!"

"Oh are you? Remind me again how many times the guards _didn't_ find you when you were hiding from me in the palace to avoid bath time?" Darkstalker said.

Solstice tilted his head. "But why did you need the guards to find me, though? Wasn't it because you couldn't find me all by yourself?"

Darkstalker frowned, then flicked his ear in an irritated manner. "Go out and hide, you clever little bunny. And remember what mommy told you: stay away from the ravine."

Solstice giggled and ventured off into the woods, hopping like a rabbit.

"You too, Remedy," Darkstalker said. "You're only going to get thirty seconds to hide before we start looking for you."

Remedy squealed and ran away.

"I can't remember the last time I played Hunter and Prey," Fathom mused as he listened to the disappearing footsteps.

"Really? There's a fun variation of the game for adults; you and Indigo should try it out some time," Darkstalker said to him. "How's she doing, by the way?"

"Indigo's doing great," Fathom said. "She's due to lay next week, and she cannot _wait_ to get those eggs out of her."

Darkstalker gave Fathom a gentle smile. "Your life is going to get so different so quickly," he warned.

"I can tell." If it wasn't already an obvious logical conclusion that routinely looking after dragonets made one's life noticeably different, Darkstalker had made the fact abundantly clear when he became a father himself. He was practically always with his two dragonets in his free time. When Fathom and Darkstalker hung out together, it had become a given that there would be a pair of hatchlings attached to him.

Which Fathom didn't mind. He'd known he was going to be a father before Remedy and Solstice had hatched from their shells, and being with Darkstalker as he took care of them was a good learning experience.

"Alright, I think we've given them enough time," Darkstalker said, taking his first steps deeper into the woods.

Fathom followed beside him. "Did it feel like a special moment?" he asked. "The day Clearsight laid her eggs?"

"Not nearly as special as the moment they hatched," Darkstalker answered. "Though part of the reason was because when she was laying, we were dealing with that terrible siege at Whelk's Atoll. We didn't have time to celebrate."

Fathom winced. That siege lasted for months, and cost both the NightWings and SeaWings hundreds of lives. It seemed to mark something of a turning point in the war as well. After the NightWings successfully breached the fortifications on the atoll and raided their supplies, the SeaWings started playing dirtier out of desperation. NightWing civilians began to get assassinated regardless of whether they were soldiers or not. Villages along the northern crags of the Talon Peninsula started getting torched and the inhabitants slain. Caravans guiding wounded soldiers home began to get intercepted and destroyed.

Fathom knew that it would only be a matter of time before the assanination attempts against Clearsight and Darkstalker started to reappear. Clearsight was already seeing them in her futures.

He tried to take his mind off of the war, and began listening more closely for the hiding dragonets.

"When they _hatched_, however …" Darkstalker closed his eyes and let out a longing smile. "Reality really hit me, I guess. There was something whimsical about flying to the nesting site alone with nobody but Clearsight, and flying back to the palace with two brand new dragons in our care."

"Clearsight told me you cried your eyes out when they hatched," he teased, brushing his wing.

"If that's true, then Clearsight is a massive _liar_," Darkstalker said, puffing out his chest proudly. With a mumble, he followed it up saying, "It wasn't until _after_ they hatched that I cried."

Fathom rolled his eyes, then heard a rustle in the nearby foliage. At once he stopped, and drew his ears up tightly.

As his night vision kicked in and he looked about the forest, Darkstalker slowed to a halt as well.

Unfortunately for Fathom, SeaWing night vision wasn't terribly effective for when it came to detecting NightWings. Fathom may have been able to see the foliage around him, but NightWings were known for their ability to camouflage into the night. Their colors washed in with all the other tones around them.

After a few seconds, Fathom heard a high-pitched scream. He looked to his side to find that Darkstalker had his head in a bush. When Fathom came closer, he saw that he was playfully munching on Remedy's head as he pinned her with his front talons. Remedy was giggling uncontrollably now and flailing her arms and legs about. "Daddy, cut it out!" she cried. "That tickles! And your breath really stinks."

Darkstalker did as requested, but not before licking her face a few times to annoy her. "Good hiding spot," he told her. "If you hadn't made any noise, I might not have found you."

"But I _didn't! _I didn't even make any noise!" she pouted.

"You moved ever so slightly enough for us to hear you shaking in the bush," Darkstalker said. "Don't forget that there are more ways to make a sound than stomping your feet and using your voice. Now, hop up on my back: you can help me find your brother."

Remedy climbed up Darkstalker's wing and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Can we play again, daddy?" she asked.

"After we find Solstice," he said. "Fathom, let's split up. I'll check the area up north. You can head west and see if he's near the rocky outcroppings."

"Alright," Fathom said, making his way towards the ravine to the west. "I'll meet up with you back at the clearing."

He split with Darkstalker and began creeping through the forest. The ground was covered in moss, which muted the sound of his steps. However, the terrain was rougher only a few steps outward: tree trunks, nurse logs, and large rocks replaced the flat detritus closer to the clearing. Fathom had to watch his step to keep himself from slipping.

He tried looking for footprints, but there weren't any soft patches of ground which would allow visible tracks to form. He tried catching the dragonet's scent, but the dew of the moss was all that he could smell.

Nonetheless, he diligently inspected the area to the best of his ability, checking every potential hiding spot for the hidden NightWing. He checked the squirrel holes in the trees for any curled up dragonets, and conspicuously large lumps in the ground that might have been tykes disguising themselves as moss-covered rocks. He checked bushes and crevices and cavities carved out by the roots of older trees. He checked hollowed out logs and shadowy patches of bracken, and even flew into the branches to check if Solstice might have climbed up one of the trees.

After searching for about ten minutes, he started to get bored. As he batted through a bush that was close to the wide, canyon-sized ravine, he found himself tempted to enchant something to point him in the right direction.

Obviously, it was just a temptation. He wouldn't actually use his magic for something so frivolous. He'd only been using his magic so far for the bigger things that made life significantly more convenient.

Like the sleep mask that he'd enchanted for Indigo, which made her more tired when she wore it. She never totally got used to the NightWing sleep schedule, and had always been a lot more tired than she needed to be.

Fathom never totally got used to the NightWing sleep schedule either, but he found that he slept much more soundly after he and Indigo started sharing the same bed.

He still had a soul that was worth worrying about, and he checked himself with the soul reader every day to make sure he wasn't getting too evil. And even though his reading never changed as far as he could tell, he still had worries in his conscience that he couldn't silence. He had voices in his head telling him that he was betraying himself with every new spell he cast. He had nightmares where he pointed the reader at himself one day only to find it suddenly filled with the brightest, whitest sand.

It was for that reason that he still kept himself from making too many enchantments. He made sure Darkstalker didn't know that he was using it again too. He didn't want his friend coming up with really clever ideas that he'd be too tempted to try out for himself.

After giving up on his search, Fathom made his way back to the clearing, where Darkstalker was waiting for him. Remedy was still sitting comfortably on his back, her curious black eyes just barely catching the starlight as she looked at him. Darkstalker sighed dejectedly when he saw him. "Did that little runt seriously end up beating us?"

"I think him being a little runt puts him at an advantage," Fathom said. "Should we tell him to come out?"

"I suppose so," Darkstalker said. "I'd keep looking, but I get nervous when I don't know where he is for too long." He lifted his head and shouted, "_Solstice, come out! You win! We give up!_"

Fathom raised his ears and listened. Solstice wasn't coming out.

"_Solstice! Come back here!_" Darkstalker shouted again. But still, there was no sign of Solstice.

"He must've gone too far out," Darkstalker grumbled, sounding a little worried. "Fathom, help me find him."

The two of them soon split up again, and in different parts of the forest they started calling Solstice's name. Fathom went back to the area by the ravine and Darkstalker went further south. All Fathom could hear in response to his shouting was Darkstalker calling for the same dragon.

A minute passed, and Solstice didn't reappear. And then another minute passed.

It didn't take long at all for Fathom to start growing nervous. Solstice should have heard them by now; why wasn't he responding? Did he fall asleep? Did he get distracted and start ignoring them? Did he fall down the cliffside and break something? Did he get carried off by bears? Was he okay? _Where was he?_

What was worse, however, was the sound of Darkstalker starting to panic. His shouts quickly got more and more urgent. "_Solstice!_" he cried frantically. "_Solstice, where are you? Speak to me!_"

Fathom's stomach began to twist. He'd never heard Darkstalker sound this troubled — not once. Every time Darkstalker shouted for his son, the terror in his voice stabbed into Fathom's chest like a stingray.

He picked up a stick and began to fidget with it. Solstice was … probably okay, right? Clearsight would have known if it was possible that he'd be in serious trouble. He was just being scatterbrained and ignoring his father. He did that a lot. He liked running off and doing his own thing, and he liked to pretend that he couldn't hear Darkstalker's voice so that he could give himself an excuse for staying distracted.

But … maybe he wasn't okay. Maybe they needed to find him _right now._ For Darkstalker's sake, he would much rather play things safe.

"_I enchant this stick to always point towards Solstice, son of Darkstalker,"_ he whispered to the stick in his talons. Instantly, the stick oriented itself in a new direction, and stayed fixed in that direction. When Fathom subconsciously tried rotating it, it refused to budge.

The weird thing was that the stick was pointing slightly upwards, suggesting that he was in the air, or in the trees.

Fathom cocked his head. Was Solstice flying? Was that why they couldn't find him?

But no, he and Remedy were still many months away from the time most dragons started to fly. Something wasn't right.

Fathom took to the sky and followed the stick. He broke through the treetops and looked around the night sky.

_This is hopeless,_ he realized as he stared into the starry void where the stick was pointed. _He's gonna be impossible to spot._

But oddly enough, after just a couple of seconds, he did see something. There was a silhouette blocking the stars as it flew away.

Fathom flew closer to the figure, now thoroughly confused. NightWings didn't block the stars like that. They had no silhouettes when they flew. That couldn't be Solstice, could it? But then, who was it? And why was the stick pointing at it?

The silhouette tilted its wings and changed directions. Its scales were ever-so slightly illuminated by the starlight, and Fathom immediately was able to tell that the colors were way off. The wings on that dragon weren't black, like a NightWing's. They were deep bluish, like a SeaWing's.

_Like a SeaWing's._

Fathom nearly fell out of the sky in shock. He just barely managed to right himself before turning around and getting just close enough back to the ground so that Darkstalker could hear him.

"Darkstalker!" he shouted. "Darkstalker, there's a SeaWing in the sky: Solstice is being kidnapped!"

"WHAT!" Darkstalker roared. A heartbeat later, he crashed out of the trees and pumped his wings towards Fathom. He must have set Remedy down, because she wasn't on his back anymore.

Fathom began flying towards the SeaWing, who by now was perhaps a mile away. The dragon would have been tough to spot if Fathom didn't know where to look for them, but Darkstalker quickly saw where the silhouette was, and he quickly accelerated towards it when he did. Fathom felt an odd combination of terror and relief when he glimpsed at the raw fury in his best friend's eyes.

They quickly closed in on the SeaWing as they passed over the massive ravine below. Fathom tentatively decided to fall behind: the kidnapper didn't seem to notice that they were being followed, and Fathom might alert them if he got too close.

He was close enough to realize, however, that there was a black smudge that the SeaWing was tightly clinging to. It appeared to be squirming, and there appeared to be a thick piece of white cloth covering its snout.

Darkstalker bolted ahead and flew directly under the SeaWing. Soon afterwards, the SeaWing must have noticed a dragon was near them, because they started to pick up speed and height.

Fathom began to fly closer, but Darkstalker was already beginning his assault. Although he was practically invisible, Fathom was able to spot a remarkably dextrous maneuver he performed where he flipped his body around and latched onto the underside of the SeaWing, where Solstice was being carried. He heard a pair of dragon roars from the two of them, and soon their forms morphed into a pair of tangled wings that began plummeting from the sky.

Several heartbeats later, the SeaWing pried Darkstalker away and righted themselves. Fathom could see Darkstalker swerve back to go after the kidnapper again, and the SeaWing twisted their body around and clubbed Darkstalker in the head with their tail.

Then, suddenly, the stick that Fathom was holding started rotating downwards, pointing away from the SeaWing, and towards a plummeting dragonet that had just gotten thrown into the ravine.

Fathom let out a terrified yelp and dropped his enchanted stick. In an instant, he dove after Solstice, pumping his wings as fast as he could.

He wouldn't make it. He was way too far, and Solstice was falling too fast. Darkstalker, though — he was closer. When he recovered from the blow to his head, he instantly noticed that his son was falling. As he sped down into the ravine to catch him, the kidnapper flew off into the distant sky, quickly disappearing.

Fathom continued descending after Solstice, but the shadows of the ravine drowned out his vision. He knew that if he flew into the deep chasm at the speed he was going, he ran the risk of colliding with an invisible stalagmite or cliffside. He landed on a butte near the top of the crevice and leaned forward, listening carefully as Solstice and Darkstalker disappeared into the shadows.

A second later, there was a sickening _thwack_ that echoed from the depths, followed by an agonized cry from Darkstalker.

Fathom blanched. _I need to use my magic again,_ he thought. _I need to find something to enchant — anything!_ He looked around for a rock or a pebble that could carry his magic. _What should my enchantment be? How can I save them? What even happened?!_

He began to carefully fly down into the ravine, continuing to search for some sort of enchantable item. His heart thrummed in his ears, and urgency overwhelmed every last one of his scales.

He grabbed onto a flower that was growing in one of the cracks and yanked it from its roots. As he was doing that, however, Darkstalker rose up from the depths, holding his child. He shot past Fathom and landed on the grass next to the surface of the ravine.

Fathom flew up and landed beside Darkstalker as he set Solstice down on the grass and pulled the cloth muzzle off of him. The dragonet's head fell back.

Both of the Solstice's wings were dislocated, broken, and severely shredded along the membranes. There was an evident skull fracture that was causing blood to pool on the ground where his horns were. A pair of cracked ribs poked out of his chest, and his neck appeared to be twisted to the side in a way that it really shouldn't be.

And he wasn't breathing.

Darkstalker shook his head. "No … No, Solstice, wake up," he said. "Solstice, please."

Fathom took Solstice's wrist and felt for a pulse. Nothing. Solstice was gone.

"He has to be okay," Darkstalker muttered. "Clearsight would have known. How could she not have seen this?"

Fathom looked up at Darkstalker and pinned his ears sadly. "Darkstalker —"

"— Shut up," he said, his voice nearly a whisper. "And get your talons off of him."

Fathom withdrew his talon and averted his gaze from Solstice's body. Darkstalker hunched over it, looking almost as numb and lifeless as the child he just lost.

He lifted the flower he'd picked and studied its tiny white petals. He felt like he was being shaken from a dream that he couldn't wake up from — like reality was slipping away from him, but never completely fading away.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He had to try and save him. He couldn't let this happen without at least trying to fix it. It was going to be a big spell, one that could destroy his soul if it worked, but he had to at least _try _casting it.

"Bring this dragon back to life," he whispered to the flower. "Bring him back to life and heal him completely." Then he placed the flower on Solstice's body.

Deep down, he knew that it wasn't going to work. Animus magic couldn't bring back the dead. Albatross had told him so. It was one of its only limitations to animus magic known to dragonkind.

And yet … something was happening.

The flower began to glow faintly, and its petals hugged the dragonet's scales.

And then the broken bones began to recede back into Solstice's body and fuse back together. The tears in his skin flattened up as new scales covered the fresh wounds. The holes in his wings zipped themselves shut, and breathing peacefully returned to his chest. Gradually, color returned to his face once again.

When the flower had done its job and Solstice was completely healed, he muttered quietly, then curled up into a ball with his wings and tail covering his body, sleeping soundly.

Darkstalker placed a talon on Solstice's body, and curled his claws gently around him. Then he looked up at Fathom, relief and surprise flooding into his eyes. "You … you saved him," he whispered. "I …" He glanced back at his son, as if afraid that he'd disappear again if he took his eyes off of him for too long. "He's okay. Thank you, Fathom."

Darkstalker put Solstice on his back, and both of them went back to find Remedy. At first, Fathom feared that another SeaWing might have tried to take her while they were dealing with Solstice, but she was safe and sound, waiting by the clearing for her father to come back. He scooped her up on his back as well, and together the four of them started their flight back to the palace.

It felt like a long flight as they soared on, and even in the wide open air, Fathom found himself feeling claustrophobic as he passed over the ravines and promontories below. Darkstalker stayed deathly quiet, scarcely making a sound when he beat his wings or cut into the wind. Though he couldn't make heads or tails of the expression on his friend's face, Fathom could tell that there were heavy thoughts brooding through his mind. _He must be thinking about how I used my powers,_ he thought. _That was the first time I ever cast a spell in front of him._

And that was a serious spell — a spell that wasn't supposed to work.

Was he just a more powerful animus than his grandfather? Or maybe he lied about animus magic not being able to bring back the dead. Or maybe _he_ was told that lie by someone, and never bothered to test it himself.

Were there _any_ limitations to animus magic? He figured that a spell like that had to have eaten a hole in his soul at the very least.

And yet …

As a crescent moon began to lift its way up over the horizon, Fathom found himself reminded of the time when he saved Indigo from Albatross, and how torn he'd become between the recognition that he was dangerous and the reality that he'd just saved someone's life.

_I'd rather be dangerous than harmless if it means I can keep saving other dragons,_ he thought. That wasn't something he believed once upon a time, but that simply meant that once upon a time he was a dragon that would have let his best friend's son die.

"I hope you're not worried about what I let myself do," he said to Darkstalker. "I made up my mind a long time ago about using my magic."

Darkstalker looked over at Fathom for a second, then brought his gaze ahead again. He couldn't tell what that look meant. Was it relief? Exhaustion? Frustration? Pity?

"I'm grateful you did," Darkstalker said, sounding troubled. "You're a good dragon, Fathom. That's never going to change."

* * *

**A/N:** Don't you hate it when you're in the middle of a story and the plot comes back and ruins everything?

I'll admit, I might have had a _little _bit too much fun making everything happy and good and conflict-free these past few chapters, to the extent that I forgot that I had an actual story to write here. I mean yes, there's a war going on now, and Clearsight is queen, which was never something she asked for (though it's a necessary corollary to Darkstalker being king). But the negative aspects of those things haven't gotten a huge spotlight in the story lately. The bad things haven't had a lot of impact, and for the most part, the world has been pretty kind to Darkstalker and Clearsight. I spent a long time building up this gradual positivity mostly because I really like it when things work out. I want Darkstalker and Clearsight to have their happy ending.

But stories have conflict, and happiness can't be perpetually building throughout the rising action. Clearsight can't get that happy ending for free.

This chapter sets a seriously different tone from the last one, which is why it was so hard for me to write. It underwent a number of major revisions, and my poor beta readers had to read through it two times over as a result. Also as a result, this chapter took quite a long time to get published. Thank you so much to those of you who have been waiting! I'm really grateful for your patience, and I'll try not to make a habit of making you wait this long again.

Anyway, that's all from me for the time being. I hope you're all staying safe and finding ways to keep yourself from getting too bored. I look forward to sharing more of this story with you all in the future!


	22. Chapter 21

**o**

**DARKSTALKER**

It was hard to concentrate.

If Darkstalker stared at any spot in the sky, he'd start looking for silhouettes that would try to take his dragonet away from him. There might be more SeaWings hiding in his kingdom. If nobody had spotted that one then there could be others, hiding, waiting, staying clear of even the futures that Clearsight saw, and _three moons_, was Solstice still sitting there on his back? WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM? Where did he—?

Oh, wait, he was still there. Yes, those were definitely his talons digging into his left shoulder. And that was definitely Remedy sitting next to him.

This wasn't a feeling that Darkstalker was used to. Usually, the world was as he saw it. His powers, coupled with Clearsight's, made sure that any lurking, unpleasant surprises would be detected and nipped in the bud before they materialized. But one of those surprises made it through, and it almost cost him his son's life. And the worst part was that he had no idea how or why it made it through in the first place.

All of a sudden, the world wasn't so simple anymore. Things could happen without him knowing. Danger could be lurking in the shadows. Danger _would_ be lurking in the shadows. The SeaWings weren't going to give up on their trickery: it will only be a matter of time before something like this happened again.

He felt dizzy when he touched down in front of the palace. His eyes kept darting back and forth looking for anything out of the ordinary. When the guards let him and Fathom enter, he wanted to scold them for not looking alive, but they actually looked quite fearsome and dedicated, so he gave them a pass.

"I'm going back to my chamber," Fathom said once they were inside. "I need to find Indigo."

"We'll talk about this more tomorrow," Darkstalker told him. "You can tell Indigo, but make sure nobody else knows what happened, okay?"

Fathom nodded before trotting off to the nearest staircase and disappearing behind the palace walls.

Darkstalker prostrated himself and extended his wings to let his dragonets off of his back. Solstice had woken up by now, but neither he nor Remedy had spoken a word during their flight. "Keep your wings brushed against mine, okay?" he told them.

"Yes, daddy," they both said. Darkstalker lowered his wingtips so that they arced over both of them, and they each extended their wings to connect with Darkstalker's.

He led them to their chamber near the throne room, where he knew Clearsight was right now. He walked as if he were crossing through a pit of venomous dragonbite vipers, aware of each step he took and every movement he saw. He eyed down any dark spots on the ceiling and in the reflections of the mirrors for hiding assassins or traps. When he found an armor-clad guard walking the opposite way, he called her over.

"Yes, my king?" she asked, bowing her head before him.

"Scout the area between here and my chamber. Make sure it's a hundred percent safe."

"Yes, my king." Promptly, the guard flew ahead, lurking close to the ceiling as she studied the palace corridors. Darkstalker continued to walk ahead, feeling slightly safer.

When he made it to the door to his suite, the door guards opened it up and let him in. Darkstalker had ordered the layout of the suite to be modified so that all of the homely accessories were behind a single, heavy, well-guarded, sound-proof door.

The queens before Clearsight had mostly lived all throughout the palace, but Clearsight and Darkstalker were both used to a more non-royal living style, where all of their necessities could be made a private matter if they so wished. Behind the door to the suite was a carpeted hall, with the three bedrooms on one side and the bathroom door on the other. At the end of the hall was a bend, which led into the lounge and the kitchen.

He could hear Listener and Clearsight talking with each other in the lounge, though he couldn't care less what they were discussing. He lifted his wings and knelt down next to his dragonets. "Now go to your rooms, you two. Try and get some sleep."

"But I'm not tired yet," Remedy told him, sounding innocent as ever. Darkstalker didn't tell her what had happened yet. He wasn't sure if he would, or if she'd even understand.

"Go to your room anyway. Why don't you make some paintings? You can paint and paint until you get tired, and then you can show me what you made tomorrow."

Remedy nodded, though she looked a little worried, like she could tell something wasn't right.

When she went off to her room, Darkstalker looked down at Solstice. "You too, buddy. To your room, alright?"

Solstice shook his head. He extended his talons and clung to Darkstalker's leg.

Which was a remarkably convincing argument. Darkstalker was persuaded enough to return the gesture, and brought himself down to scoop Solstice up into a tight hug.

"Listen," he said. "Your mommy and I need to talk alone right now, but we'll be right there for you as soon as we're done. If you go to your room now, we'll let you sleep in our bed for the next week, okay?"

A total bluff. Solstice and Remedy were going to be sleeping beneath Darkstalker's wing for the next _month_ at least, whether they were obedient or not.

It worked, though. Solstice quietly traipsed into his room and shut the door behind him. The moment his eyes left his child, he felt a tug of fear tug at his heart. _What if a SeaWing snuck into the palace and was waiting in Solstice's room?_

He closed his eyes and studied the near futures as carefully as he could. It looked like Solstice and Remedy were safe: he'd see them again soon. It didn't ease his tensions, but it convinced him that it was okay to walk into the lounge instead of Solstice's room at that moment.

He found it tough to look at either Clearsight or Listener when he walked into the lounge. He found it tough to lift his head at all, and instead kept his eyes to various corners of the room.

His mind was too scrambled by this lingering question of _how?_ How did this happen? How was something this monumental able to elude the future sight of both him and Clearsight? And how was he going to keep himself from being eluded again?

"Hello? Darkstalker, are you there?"

Darkstalker finally lifted his head and faced Listener. "What?"

"I said, aren't you here a little early?" Listener asked. "You weren't supposed to be back at the palace for another hour, right?"

Was it just him, or did that sound accusatory? That crooked frown on her face wasn't the friendliest looking thing in the world. "What's wrong with me being early? Should I leave?" he asked, folding his brow at her.

"What? No, of course not!" Listener said, looking a little startled. "Clearsight saw you returning early in her visions. We were worried that something might've happened."

"Right, and that's suddenly a concern of yours," he said dryly as he started towards the kitchen to get some water.

"Um, _yes_, it is," Listener said. "Last I checked, you were my king, and I was your friend. Of course it matters to me if something happened to you."

Darkstalker clenched his talon and twisted his head around. "Well, last _I_ checked, you were the sorriest excuse for a spymaster I've ever seen," he snarled. "You're supposed to be keeping an eye on the SeaWings, but you've been loafing around doing nothing while they're crawling around under our noses. Are any of those scale-brained idiots under your command actually doing anything?"

"_What?_" Listener said, looking at him as if he'd just grown a hideous second head. "What on _earth_ are you talking about?"

"You see, _that's_ exactly the problem," Darkstalker said as he marched towards her. "You should know what I'm talking about. You should have _told me_ what I'm talking about."

"Listener, you should probably leave us," Clearsight said with alarming urgency. She extended a wing and started pushing Listener towards the door with it.

"Whoa, hold on!" Listener said as she scrambled away from Clearsight. "I can't just walk away without him telling me what happened."

"I'll talk to you about it later, I promise." For just a second, Clearsight glanced over at Darkstalker, and there was a wide-eyed panic in her eyes that he hadn't seen from her in over a year. Then she returned her gaze to Listener and said, "I have the feeling Darkstalker and I need to discuss things privately first."

Listener scrunched her snout and let out a pout. "_Fine._ I'll talk to you later tonight."

Clearsight led her to the door as Darkstalker stayed in the lounge. By the time Listener was gone and Clearsight had made her way back, Darkstalker was pacing in circles around the cushions and very seriously considering finding something to break.

"Did you have to torture her like that?" she asked him, still looking nervous. "She's overworked enough already with this war."

"I'm well within my rights to be angry, Clearsight," Darkstalker said with a snort. "Do you have any idea what happened to us?"

"Obviously something bad, but — Darkstalker, by all the moons, calm down! You look like you're about to explode."

Oh, he very nearly was. "Our dragonets' lives are in danger, Clearsight," he said, completely ignoring her advice to calm down. "We were attacked by a SeaWing in the middle of the woods. Why didn't you tell me that this was going to happen?"

"What?" Clearsight said with a stutter. "I didn't know that was going to happen."

"You _told me_ he would be safe!" Darkstalker roared, glaring angrily down at her. "You said that Solstice would be alright — that all he needed to do was be careful around the ravine."

Clearsight looked confused. "Are you sure you're not overreacting to this? I-I mean, yes, this is a problem and we need to talk to the council about this immediately, but Solstice was alive and well in every single vision that I saw, and you're acting like he almost died."

It took a lot of restraint to keep himself from lashing out at her for saying something so _wrong_ — so neglectful. "He didn't _almost_ die, Clearsight: he _did_ die! He was kidnapped, and I chased after the guy, but he threw Solstice into the ravine, a-and I couldn't save him in time." He paused to take a deep breath. "If Fathom didn't use his magic to bring him back to life, I would have his corpse on my back right now."

It looked like reality finally set in for her. Clearsight's eyes went wide as he explained what had happened, and she sat herself down, pinning her ears to the side of her head. "Oh, Solstice … Is he okay?"

"He's shaken," Darkstalker told her. "He doesn't seem to remember everything, but I'm sure he remembers being grabbed and carried away."

"Oh, my poor baby," Clearsight said, her voice practically a whimper. "I'm sorry. I had no idea."

A bit of Darkstalker's anger finally began to dissipate. It was hard to stay mad at her when she got all sad and genuinely understanding like that. He let out a strong exhale, which did nothing to quell the anxious buzzing inside his chest and brain. "You should have known this, Clearsight," he said, kind of trying to not sound accusatory, but knowing he probably wasn't doing a very good job. "_Why_ didn't you know this?"

Clearsight thought silently for long enough that Darkstalker started to notice the sounds of Solstice playing with his blocks in his room.

"Well?" Darkstalker pressed.

"I … I think it's because I wasn't with you," Clearsight finally said. "I never would have been there to see what happened, so my visions never would have shown it to me."

Darkstalker tilted his head. "But … your visions have shown you things that you never saw, right?"

"No, they haven't," Clearsight said. "My visions are always about _my_ life, not anyone else's. The only way my visions could tell me about Solstice dying is if Solstice permanently died."

"But what if he _did_ permanently die? What if Fathom decided not to use his powers to save him?"

Clearsight looked into Darkstalker's eyes in a way that communicated without words. _'You know the answer to that already, Darksalker,'_ they said.

"That never would have happened," she said to him. "Fathom wouldn't have let Solstice die. No matter what, he would have tried to save him. And no matter what, he would have succeeded."

Darkstalker didn't have a response to that. He did know that, yes: it had crossed his mind far too many times when he was flying back to the palace with Fathom. But it felt like it was too scandalous of an observation. Darkstalker was supposed to be tempering the use of his own magic, and it was largely _because _of Fathom that he'd decided to practically stop using his scroll altogether. He remembered Fathom being so full of fear and self-loathing over his animus powers. He remembered Fathom repeating in his mind that promise he'd made to never use magic again.

But somewhere, somehow, that part of Fathom vanished. Now, Fathom was a dragon who was willing to use his powers for good: to use his magic to save someone else.

But not only that: he was a dragon who would _always_ have been willing to use his magic. If Clearsight were right, then Fathom was so committed to using his magic to save Solstice's life in that moment that in no timeline would he have decided otherwise.

But _not only that_: he was a dragon who was confidently willing to cast a spell that brought the dead back to life. Darkstalker didn't even know that was possible. He never expected animus magic to be that powerful. His powers were supposed to have at least some limitations. He never truly tested where those limitations were, but he always figured that some spells would simply be too costly. Maybe they weren't after all.

But perhaps the most frustrating and scandalous part of this observation was that _Fathom was still good_. He checked the futures as intensely as he could. He checked to see if there were any signs of Fathom slipping or becoming more sinister in any way in the future. He even tried to find a future where he pointed the soul reader at Fathom and read the hourglass, though the visions he summoned were too fuzzy.

Even so, there was nothing. Fathom didn't corrupt his soul with that last spell. And if a spell that powerful didn't destroy Fathom, or even change him a little bit, then he didn't know if any spell out there actually would.

And just like that, Darkstalker was out of reasons to not use magic himself anymore. He wanted to show his friend that he was showing restraint and following his example, but his friend had just cast the most powerful and important spell that Darkstalker had ever seen in his life.

He wanted to accept that there were limits to his magic, and that he had to be careful because there were some things that his powers simply wouldn't be able to fix or undo. But Darkstalker suddenly found it hard to believe that those limits really did exist.

And he wanted to make sure that he wasn't destroying his soul — that he would never become anything like his father because he used up too much of his inner spirit to cast powerful spells. But it seemed that powerful spells didn't drain the good in his soul after all.

He turned around and started towards his bedroom.

"Wait, Darkstalker hold on; I know what you're thinking about doing," Clearsight called after him as she quickly caught up to his side.

"Don't try and stop me," he said with a cold softness.

"Do you really think your head is in the right place to be using magic again?" she asked. "Just stop and think for a second: you're angry and afraid, and you have every right to be, but —"

"_Don't try and stop me_," Darkstalker repeated, stopping only to look Clearsight in the eye. "I am going to do whatever it takes to keep our dragonets and our tribe safe. If you're too afraid to do the same thing, then stay out of our room until I'm done. If you're not, then help me come up with ideas."

Clearsight gave Darkstalker that look she had when she was fretting over the threads in her mind instead of actually paying attention to him. Which he normally didn't mind, but this time it was seriously starting to get on his nerves. Why did she have to be timid and restrained _now?_ What was wrong with her? Why wasn't she furious? Did she not understand that she almost just lost her own son?

"Okay," she said, though not without a rather sour-sounding tone of defeat. She took Darkstalker's side. "I'll help you."

Darkstalker felt himself relax a little. All of a sudden, he found himself missing the old times, when she smiled at the gifts he made for her, when he wasn't leashed from his magical powers by her and Fathom. With Clearsight by his side like this, Darkstalker suddenly felt hopeful that those times might be coming back again.

Except this time, it'd be better. This time, he'd have both his magic _and_ Fathom. This time, he'd have a kingdom. This time, he wouldn't just be having fun as a curious teenager: he'd be casting spells that changed lives, and made everyone happier.

He and Clearsight slid into their bedroom, and Darkstalker made his way towards the dark closet where they kept their more personal treasures. Along the far wall was a mirror, and below that mirror was a chest of drawers that contained pieces of jewelry and other meaningful mementos. In one drawer was Clearsight's enchanted watch, and in another was the pair of goblets that he'd enchanted a long time ago for Listener's scavenger shenanigans. It had been so long since he last looked at them that he'd forgotten which drawer actually held them. Silken robes hung against the other walls, and boxes full of old paintings and other keepsakes from when he and Clearsight were kids lay stacked along the edge of the room.

At one corner of the closet there was a long wooden chest encased in black leather. Darkstalker grabbed it and opened it up, and inside, right where he'd left it, was his scroll. It was still tucked in his leather scroll bag, and sitting in its own cubby hole beside it was a tub of black ink, with a dirty rag wrapped around it.

He took all of the contents of the chest out and transported them outside of the closet. He brought them over to the desk where Clearsight went to write down her dreams, and got everything organized atop the surface.

He unscrewed the inkwell and set it down in the hole in the desk. Then he unfurled his scroll and flattened it out.

"So, what are you thinking?" Clearsight asked, her head looming over his shoulder and looking at the blank roll of scroll.

"We need more protection," Darkstalker said, tapping at the table. "That should be our priority."

"Maybe we could enchant a map of the Night Kingdom that reveals the location of the SeaWings inside of it," Clearsight suggested.

Darkstalker shook his head. "That'll just remind us that we're vulnerable. We need a way to keep the SeaWings out — to keep them from hurting us."

"We can't keep _all_ the SeaWings out," Clearsight reminded him. "What about Fathom and Indigo? What about their soon-to-be hatchlings?"

"Obviously we'll make an exception for them," Darkstalker grumbled impatiently.

"And what about the SeaWings we may want to invite for negotiations after the war ends?"

"Quit worrying; I haven't even suggested anything yet." He was finding it unusually difficult to come up with ideas too. He must just be rusty with the use of his magic.

"I know where your thoughts were going," she said. "In the last timeline, when we were still at war with the IceWings, you enchanted the mountains to our north to kill any IceWing that tried crossing it."

Darkstalker straightened up at that. "I enchanted the _entire_ mountain range?" he asked. He felt a little stupid for not considering something like that. His mind had been stuck on the idea of enchanting trinkets and blankets and other day-to-day objects, but it seemed perfectly logical that larger things like mountains could be enchanted too.

Clearsight shut her mouth and looked innocently off to the side, which for some reason put Darkstalker in quite a good mood.

"Oh, what, was I not supposed to know that?" Darkstalker asked, teasing a smile at her.

"I just don't want you getting any bad ideas," Clearsight said.

"Don't worry, Clearsight. You know how terrible I am at getting bad ideas. Now, back to the scroll." He grimaced at the blank paper, then said, "Do you think I _should_ enchant the mountains?"

"Of course not!"

"Obviously not with _that_ enchantment, but with something else," Darkstalker quickly clarified. _Although now that I think about it, is that enchantment any different from the IceWing wall that kills _anyone_ that even _approaches_ it? If they can get away with making something like that, why can't I?_

"I — I still don't think so," Clearsight said. "We don't want to make it obvious that we're using magic, or else using magic will become fair game for both sides. _You _were the one who argued that in the first place, remember?"

"Right, but that was before Solstice and Remedy existed," Darkstalker said. "And besides, we know they've been using magic themselves. The IceWings have been using their seal pool to give the SeaWings free food."

"I'm just saying we shouldn't make anything too powerful," Clearsight told him. "I can see futures where the IceWings officially ally themselves against us, and it won't be pretty if we convince them that using more powerful magic is a fair option."

Darkstalker let out a long sigh. "Fine. But we can't let them get away with what they did to Solstice." Almost immediately after he said that, an idea jumped into his mind. "Can I enchant other dragons too?"

That question made Clearsight instantly grow pale, and Darkstalker remembered why only a heartbeat thereafter.

"Right, my father," he said abashedly. "You told me about what I did to him. I remember that." He tried to give Clearsight a look of assurance and added, "I wasn't thinking anything like that, don't worry."

"Then what _are_ you thinking?" she asked, her ears flat against her head.

"I was thinking about teleporting the kidnapper into a dungeon cell. He's probably still flying back to his outpost, so nobody would know if we used our magic on him."

Clearsight unpinned her ears a bit, looking both relieved and tentative about the idea.

"He belongs in our dungeons, Clearsight," Darkstalker said. "Besides, he could be helpful. He could tell us what he knows. Think about how much they need to be spying on us for them to know where I was going to be today."

"I … alright. You're right." Clearsight took a step back from Darkstalker. "Let's go to the prison cells."

"_I'll_ go to the prison cells. You can stay here." When he saw how Clearsight raised a brow at him accusatively, he quickly added, "One of us should be here to look after the hatchlings. I told Solstice that we'd be here for him once we're done talking. But I promise I won't do anything evil. I'll even show you the scroll when I get back."

That seemed to persuade her. "Don't take too long," she said before handing him the scroll bag and sealing the ink well for him. Soon, Darkstalker's scroll was attached to his body and he was out the door.

It was a laborious task actually getting to the dungeons. They were deep below the palace, where the pressure of the mountains above would make even MudWings squirm with discomfort. It was accessible only by a slow screw drive elevator that was large enough to fit no more than four dragons at a time. It was tucked away in a corner of the palace that most dragons had never even seen before, and the steady mechanical clucks of the winch that descended him to the depths was just about the most ignoble sound that was regularly produced within the palace walls.

When the elevator came to a halt at the bottom and the doors opened, Darkstalker was met with the smell of rust and mold festering in the cool, damp corridor ahead carved out of the mountains. On both sides of the corridor were several heavy metal doors, black as charcoal.

A young female guard was at the head of the corridor, readied for whoever would be on the elevator. She jumped to attention when she saw that it was Darkstalker. When he read her thoughts, she turned out to be expecting another prison guard who had the shift after her.

"Your Majesty," she said, bowing low. "Are you looking for someone here in the dungeons?"

"Take me to the closest unoccupied prison cell, and make sure you have the key to lock it," Darkstalker told her.

Though she looked curious, the guard promptly nodded and turned around to lead him further into the dungeon walls.

It wasn't long before she stopped in front of a cell door that looked no different from the others along the corridor. The guard produced a key from her armor and unlocked the door. When it swung open, Darkstalker stepped inside and examined the cell. It was actually quite spacious, supplying enough room for him to fully extend his wings. One side of the floor had a loose pile of moldy hay, and the other had a moist wooden bucket from which Darkstalker instinctively kept his distance.

He turned his head and faced the prison guard again. "I'm going to use my magic to bring a SeaWing into this chamber," he said to her. "Keep him locked in here and make sure he isn't given any water until I come down to see him again."

"Shall the guards give him food, my king?" she asked, which Darkstalker appreciated. She didn't wonder about whom the SeaWing was or why Darkstalker was using magic suddenly: she simply wanted to know what her duties were.

"Only dry bread," he said. "Or whatever else you feed to the prisoners that happens to be dry. He'll probably stop eating after a couple of days either way. Now, if you would please close the door …"

When Darkstalker heard the click of the door behind him, he pulled out his scroll and inkwell and placed both on the cleanest part of the ground he could find.

He brought his talon to the paper and slowly scrawled out the words, _"Enchant the SeaWing who dropped Solstice the NightWing into a ravine earlier this night to teleport into this prison cell."_

Before he could even wipe the ink off of his claw, the spell did its work. A SeaWing with his wings extended materialized within the prison cell, facing one of the corners of the room.

The SeaWing yelped, and his body flailed about as if it were falling from the sky before his limbs secured themselves to the ground and he pushed himself to a standing position. "What happened?! Where am I?!" he sputtered.

He frantically looked around until his eyes locked with Darkstalker's. _That's him,_ Darkstalker's memory roared. _That's the one who stole away your boy._

There was only a split second of fear in the SeaWing's eyes before Darkstalker lunged at him and grabbed him by the neck.

The SeaWing, somewhat surprisingly, didn't put up much resistance. He pulled against Darkstalker's talons, which were digging into his scales, but made no effort to squirm or break free.

"You made a mistake trying to pull off what you did to my son," Darkstalker growled, feeling the weight of his eyes piercing into the terrified SeaWing. "You're lucky he's still alive, or else I doubt I'd have enough restraint to keep myself from tearing you limb from limb right now." He squeezed his grip on the SeaWing tighter, until he could feel his claws penetrating through the SeaWing's scales and drawing his blood. His biolights started to light up the cell.

"You are going to die here: I can promise you that," Darkstalker continued. "But before that happens, I'm going to get some answers from you. And before _that_ happens, you're going to get a taste of what your last moments are going to be like if you try and hide anything from me. I hope we're clear."

"How did I get here?" the SeaWing asked with a croak.

"I have been holding back the use of my magic as a courtesy," Darkstalker hissed. "But because of you, that has changed. I may not need animus powers to defeat your kingdom in this war. But now I'd be happy to use them to make sure your kingdom never recovers after it's obliterated."

He threw the SeaWing to the ground and gathered his enchanted scroll. "Open the door," he said to the guard as he slid the scroll back in its case. "I'm done here."

The prison guard swung open the cell door and let Darkstalker slide out. Turning to the guard, Darkstalker said, "Don't tell anyone about how this prisoner got here for now. If anyone asks, say that he was a spy that I captured near the palace that I brought in myself."

The guard shut and locked the door and said, "Yes, Your Majesty. Shall I escort you to the elevator?"

"Please do. This dungeon is starting to make my stomach turn."

After he walked down the corridor and loaded himself onto the elevator, Darkstalker felt himself bubble with satisfaction. It felt like the world was starting to put itself into place. Justice had been served against one dragon, and all it took was a simple teleportation spell.

And soon, justice would be served to the rest of the Sea Kingdom too.

* * *

**A/N:** Is it just me, or does it feel like time is passing by faster now? I guess the lack of structure induced by my staying at home all the time has caused my creative routine to retard itself, because this chapter did _not_ feel like it took a month to write.

Anyway, just to let you guys know, I'm going to be starting a short story that I've been meaning to write for a long time now, so the next chapter might take a bit of time to complete. It also might not, though! I hope it doesn't. I don't want to keep you waiting, and I'm getting more and more excited about where this story is going. But if the next chapter _does_ end up taking a long time to get published, you'll know why.

As always, I love hearing your thoughts and critiques, and I read every single review I get for this story, most of them multiple times. Thank you all for your support. You guys make me feel like an absolute rock star. :)


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